This past weekend, I went on Kairos, a retreat devoted to learning about oneself and others. It was a pretty eye-opening experience. More than anything else, this weekend taught me that you never know what someone has going on in their life. Everyone has their own struggles that they cope with each day. Along these lines, one of the mottos of Kairos is "everyone has a story."
This reminded me of my blog, because news is all about telling stories. As my journalism teacher always says, a journalist's job is to "gather facts and tell stories." Be it an author or a rose farmer, everyone has a story. I didn't always thing of news as storytelling-- I really just saw it as a way to let people know about big events that were happening. But the journalism industry has the capacity to do so much more and bring to light the stories of people behind the big stories.
Stories are everywhere, and have been a prominent theme in our English class this year. We began the year with The Things They Carried, which beautifully emphasizes the importance of stories in people's lives. We continued by talking about myths and the narratives of our lives, an idea that is central to Kairos. In Reading Lolita in Tehran, we again were exposed to the impact of people's personal stories.
Basically, stories are everywhere. Everyone has one. I would like to urge readers to consider this when living their day-to-day lives. Next time your friend is in a bad mood, consider that she may have just fought with her parents. Instead of ridiculing a person who dresses differently or sits alone in the lunch room, consider the ideas that their sibling may be seriously ill or their parent might be battling a drug addiction. Everyone's life is a story that has had a serious influence on the way they act and live. And that can't be overlooked.
