The stories we tell ourselves…
I’ve been telling stories for as long as I can remember, although I never called myself a storyteller. When I was young I thought storytellers were merely people who wrote incredible fiction, created fantastic worlds, imagined unimaginable creatures, and wrote up plots and schemes to create perfect crimes. However, some of the most interesting stories I’ve ever read are real stories, about real people, facing real problems. People trying to find their own place in the world, fighting their not so unimaginable monsters, sorting out what kind of people they want to be.
As I’ve gotten older, I realized that we are all storytellers in our own ways. As a lawyer, I learned how to understand people and retell their stories through multiple lenses. As a researcher nowadays, I transform raw data into compelling stories that will — one way or another — initiate dialogues, encourage critical thinking, champion facts over opinions, and hopefully promote change. That said, I guess I am a storyteller after all.
Joan Didion once wrote in her 1979 book of essays The White Album: “we tell ourselves stories in order to live.” Here I hope to share a few lines with whoever wants to read them. I will oftentimes mention the names of organizations, institutions, media channels, political figures and whatnot, but while filling this space with words all views will be my own.
Welcome and enjoy the ride.
