Word of the Day: Storytelling.

Storytelling is the activity of writing, telling, or reading stories, according to Cambridge Dictionary.

Storytelling has always been one of my favorite forms of entertainment. From a young age I have always loved reading and diving into different worlds and stories, getting to experience life in a different way.

When reading in class during elementary school, I would always hide my personal books in front of my school textbooks so that I could continue reading without the teacher seeing me. Looking back, they probably knew that I wasn’t paying attention to the class reading, but they never asked me to stop so I just kept reading.

In middle school, I upgraded from reading lighter books such as Geronimo Stilton by Elisabetta Dami and Dork Diaries by Rachel Renée Russell to reading books with more adventure and complexity like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. Reading these stories gave me a sense of adventure, thrill, and excitement that I had not known before.

In high school and college, I continued to read a variety of books, but not as frequently because of the school workload and having new hobbies and a job that kept me pretty busy. But my love for reading never left and I always try to find some extra time in my busy schedule to continue to find new stories and books to love.

All of that to say, I love storytelling. I always have. But I should mention the fact that I love reading other’s stories, not sharing my own stories. I have never been a good storyteller. I always talk too fast or get too excited on the “big” parts of the story that I forget to mention the smaller parts.

Well, this semester I was tasked by Gary Kayye?? CTS to write a variety of different blog posts and tell different stories for MEJO 577: The Branding of Me class.

I knew what this class entailed when I signed up, but all I could think on the first day of class when reading through the syllabus was “oh my goodness what I am I doing here, I am not a good storyteller”.

While the idea of sharing stories feels quite daunting to me, I know that with practice, hard work and some creativity, I am going be able to do it.

Now, to give some context, I can technically write about anything I want. The content of this blog is completely up to me to decide.

After going through different ways that I can make this blog personal to me, I thought what better way than to feature a “Word of the Day” for each blog post to help me get through my stories.

With my “Word of the Day”, I will be able to focus on one feeling or action that has (or maybe hasn’t) shaped my life. By featuring one word at a time, I hope to bring more clarity and depth to my storytelling, and maybe even learn a few things about myself in the process.

?My goal is to provide a definition of the W.O.T.D. to give you some background, and then I will share my experiences with that certain word.

To be completely honest with you, I am quite terrified that I will not be good at telling my stories, but please bear with me in this process.

I am very excited about what is to come, and I hope you all stay tuned to see my next W.O.T.D.!