Unless I am babysitting for my adorable nieces, I recoil when asked for a story. I am not a storyteller. But, like you, I have many stories to share.
I know many people feel this way. They may be humble, shy, deferential, or non-performative. Professionally, you may be a novelist, a screenwriter, performance folklorist, or a singer/songwriter. But in real life, you may not fancy yourself a storyteller, either.
You are a human being seeking to connect with another human being. You are a passionate person who wants to be understood. You are compassionate, curious, and capable of inviting others to be heard.
And people like to be heard. Even people who self-profess that they are not storytellers. Even people who think stories are only for children, and even then only at bedtime.
Everyone has a story to share. Especially the non-storytellers. We’re just not thinking of our complex, exuberant, maddening, and sad experiences as stories. We’re too busy to spend our time articulating the myriad of antagonists and daily onslaught of turning points. We haven’t had the time, or motivation, to search for inherent lessons or morals in our experiences. It’s simply sundry stuff that happened, that had to happen, that was going to happen anyway.
