Take into consideration

It’s like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story. – Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

Last week we discussed stories, and the general shape that they follow. From an outsider’s perspective, the plot may be easy to follow. What challenges exist when the story is about you?

Part of the challenge in identifying the shape of my story is that many of us feel that we’re in the middle of the story. It is a challenge to separate out hopes and dreams from reality. Self-improvement may come into conflict with the items on the resume or Facebook profile.

An example of this comes from the story Mulan. The main character is based on the legend of Hua Mulan, a young woman that must take her father’s place in the army. After fighting with honor and skill, she decides to refuse rewards and returns to her homeland.

In the Disney film, she spends time in the middle of the action reflecting on her life and the shape of her story.

The character of Mulan may have had challenges reflecting on the shape of her incomplete story. You may also be challenged as you consider how honest we want to be. Finally, who will you write for as you diagram the shape of my story?

Your Response

Think of the events of your life and how you got to the present. What dreams and ambitions still remain?

Use your voice and the sounds of your life to illustrate where you are in your life’s journey. How do you use language to define who you are and your place in your community/culture?

Write a blog post that shares the shape of my story and include any reflections or contextual information you believe is important. There is no need to dig deep and include granular elements at this point as you share your story. Just as you diagrammed the shape of a story in the last learning event, this retelling of the shape of your story should capture the series of connecting events.

Tweet out a link to this post to #WalkMyWorld and your online spaces. Please include #LE4 to indicate the learning event. You may also include a hashtag to recognize your own learning network.

A guiding example

Listen to the audio tracks below as you plan, and create an overview of the connecting events that comprise the shape of my story. There are autobiographical elements in each of the songs listed below. In most cases, you can listen to the artists themselves sharing their story.

You will hear from the life of Loretta Lynn, Michael Jackson, and Billy Joel.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.