Tell Your Story

HOW I BECAME A FIRESTARTER (Part I)

Only my classmate Sara Smith knew the origin of the “I start fires” language from my last post.  Sara had been one of my sounding board partners for my Foundations in Teaching and Training Creativity course in Spring 2016.   A year later, when we started our Master’s Projects we each had different sounding board partners but still scheduled a call or two to bounce ideas off each other.

During our first call of the semester I was swirling words in an ideational circle and can’t remember exactly what I was trying to figure out (story of my life).  What I do remember is that Sara got excited and said “You can say that you start fires!”  She proceeded to explain that when the professor who taught our introductory course gets asked what he does for a living he says he dissolves walls!  Sara explained that I can say “I start fires!”  We were obviously talking about my passion for sparking hopes and dreams.

While I still haven’t used this line in a face to face conversation, I have used it in a scholarship application, in my Letter of Intent for the Master’s program and most recently in my blog post yesterday.

Why do I share this story?

Because our stories matter.  We love stories.  Especially inspiring and uplifting stories of synchronicity and interconnectedness.  Everyday we are writing the story of who we are becoming.  You are the hero in your own story.  And you interact with and interconnect with the heros of countless other stories.   Take a minute to let that sink in, friends.  Don’t diminish the significance of this reality.

Your story hasn’t ended yet and neither has mine.  Our stories matter to us and they can inspire others.

Now, you may not be as blown away by the serendipity of the only comment I got in response to yesterday’s post on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn (aside from a much appreciated FB share from my friend Desiree) but let me tell you why I was!!!

 This comment is from the professor of my introductory course in creativity.  This is the guy who dissolves walls for a living!  I’m guessing his language (which I artistically stole) spoke to him.  You know stealing (like an artist) is the greatest form of flattery 😉

As I wrapped up this day, it was a pleasure to see Dr. Firestien’s post above which linked to his story.  As I begin writing the last chapters of my graduate student story and start dreaming about the narrative that will become the rest of my life, reading Roger’s story inspired me.  As the author of my own life, at a cross-roads, I will spend the next few weeks diverging on “What might be all the things I want to do with the rest of my life?” and then converging on a vision statement of “What I see myself doing is…”

I will spend a lot of time alone and quiet during this time, for which I apologize in advance to my husband, kids and friends.  Alone and quiet is where I can hear that still small voice and the voice of God.

Your story matters.  Tell your story.  Get intentional about writing your future, the story of who you are becoming.

 

 

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