This is a guest post by Kristin Tweedale of rukristin papercrafts as part of our summer storytelling series. Click here to register for Stories of the Summer, a free summer project class.
Great storytelling is an art – one that has always been evolving. It’s evolution has changed as our societies have, beginning with stories passed down from generation to generation, on cave walls, to chapel ceilings. The first historians were really storytellers, spreading information and knowledge far and wide.
We are amazing people and we deserve to have our stories told and re-told. Your story is worth being recorded and shared, and you are the best person to do it. Be the author of your own personal story. This summer, join a community of talented people to learn to tell the tale of your life, the way you want to tell it and the way you want it to be understood by others.
We connect to other people through stories, sharing emotions and commonalities. But it is equally important to connect to yourself and to your own story. This Simple Scrapper article from Katie Clemons explains the importance of telling your own story. We each have our own stories, no matter how boring you think your life can be sometimes, and those stories need to be told. And you owe it to yourself to tell those stories the best way that you can.
Telling a story, especially your own, can be incredibly hard! We can learn a lot by stepping outside of our own comfort zone and looking at what other storytellers are doing. Storytelling is paradoxical. On one level, it is incredibly universal – it weaves itself through almost every part of our lives. We receive stories through movies, music, and books. We tell stories to each other on the phones, in letters, and on the computer through social media and blogs. But, storytelling is also incredibly personal. You have to have the courage to open up a part of yourself to someone else, or many people. You have to find a style and a way to express yourself that feels like you.
As you have probably deduced, I believe in the power of storytelling. It is incredibly important that we tell the stories of our lives. We are ALL amazing people and we deserve to have our stories told and re-told. The satisfaction I get from seeing a tangible record of one of my adventures in a mini-book or layout, from sharing a fun story on my blog, or from filling up a journal is infectious. It makes you want more, and put simply, it makes you happy. Be the author of your own story and tell it the way it’s meant to be told – in your genuine and authentic voice.
This summer, I’m going to be working on my own storytelling skills by teaching a free summer storytelling workshop called Find Your Voice. Join me as we work together to find the most genuine and authentic way for you to tell your stories the way you want them to be told. We’ll be telling stories through pictures, photographs, social media, prose, and more. The only thing you need is a willingness to become the author of your own story and the courage to step outside of your comfort zone. Join me and take the first step on your own storyteller journey.
Kristin Tweedale is a millennial storyteller who loves memory-keeping, graphic design, social justice, her iPhone, and Jeffrey (her person). She is 27 years old and lives outside of NYC in Northern NJ. Everything she does revolves around telling her story and inspiring others to do the same. Visit Kristin at rukristin papercrafts, where new summer stamps have just been stocked!
Editor’s Note: Do you consider yourself a storyteller? Share why or why not in the comments.
great post; love those sunset shots. I remember in 3rd grade rushing home from school to write stories w/my bff. We even illustrated them w/tiny drawings that fit in the lines of our loose leaf paper. God I wish i still had those pages!!