Why Creators Must Cross the Vulnerability Hurdle
Being vulnerable is like walking naked in the street
“Being vulnerable is like walking naked in the street.
It’s like what you have been hiding now become an open wound and you watch whether people are gonna add salt on it or not.”
“But others might not care about the things the same way as you do.”
Expressing my vulnerable side is never an easy thing for me. I rarely talk about personal stories with people in real life.
Like when I was in a relationship, basically I just keep it to myself. Until my boyfriend and I split up, I got a kind of heartbreak no one can talk with.
Because I don’t want to be deemed weak by crying over a breakup.
In one class, we as film school students were asked to make some short films for the final, vulnerable one only.
On screening day, some students’ themes were about high school crush and mine was about friendship.
“Why do friends separate while growing up is a sad thing?” One of my classmates asked me.
I felt speechless, standing in front of the class.
One of the worst experiences is when you decide to show your vulnerability, your feelings are denied.
And while watching other students’ work which is like pop songs about high school crush I can’t relate to, I think crying for someone would bother him.
Also, my rational thinking for those shows is like “Is it just because he/she is in a sports team/popular” “Will your taste change after graduation?”
Yet Carl R. Rogers said, “What is most personal is most universal”
Resonance means this happened to you and I have been there too. So how do people relate to your story if they don’t have the same life as you do?
As I watched my classmate’s tears rolling down his face in the short film, I felt what he’d felt about unrequited love in high school.
Human emotion is connected. You don’t have to relate to it, you just can feel it.
“Is it just me?” We can’t help but wonder if this is only happening to us at times.
Am I the only one who felt paralyzed by friendship?
In the class, the answer might be yes. There were just around 40 out of a billion people in the world. And everyone is on a new journey to have friends. What I shared is not made for those 40 people.
Our story is for us to face ourselves first.
We might not feel many around us understand us but once we share our story, those who have the same experience will have a chance to gather around.
Then there is a chance our story makes them feel seen and less lonely. Also, it could be a lesson for others to learn.
Moreover, there are some books we can’t get it when we read them for the first time but after years gone by, we read them again, we suddenly realized what the creators want to convey.
It’s a matter of time.
And in this time and age, the population of people living alone in their apartments is increasing. Those can access to wifi don’t live in a tribe where people need to team up to survive like how human used to be.
So it’s not surprising that social media has taken the world by storm.
The few things we can do now is to connect the souls behind the computer screen, particularly during the pandemic.
People want to know creators’ lives. That’s why “my daily routine” “get ready with me” and “my bedroom tour” videos tend to go viral on youtube.
Not everyone is going to home depot before watching those videos, this could the reason but most audience wants to feel more, not just a small talk about weather with strangers.
In a world we can not choose our family, classmates, and colleagues, at least we can choose what creators we want to see.
The one-sided story is not enough anymore. Vulnerability makes creators look complete.
Put us out there no matter what we think of our experience. Even if just one person needs it, it is enough.
And if everyone really dares to write their own story, every piece would be an epic.
