It's Storytime! - Me, Myself, and I

Today, I took the time to develop my idea for the 'Me, Myself, and I'-project and created a short synopsis and a mood board. As this project challenges us to find our very own personal stories and our own voice in the making, I finally came up with the idea of me rewriting my past - at least the unpleasant parts of it.

It's been a theme that haunted me throughout most of my life and while I oftentimes wished I could change the story of my life to a better one, I am fully aware that - if ever given the opportunity to do so - I would eradicate all that I am and all that I have become. If I removed any unpleasantness and any challenge, the me that sits and types these sentences right now would cease to exist. And something artificial, shallow, would fill its place. Whoever or whatever it was, it would most certainly not be me.

I adhere to the notion that a true story consists of challenges and developments, with beginning, middle and end, presenting a message - a morale of the story. And I do think that stories and storytelling are vital parts of mankind and its development, so much so that our neural makeup works and hence our perception of the world is shaped by the act of telling stories.

We, as a species, make sense of the world by creating stories, seeking protagonists and antagonists, assigning values to them and their actions and we do not only find a reason behind them doing so but we first and foremost search for meaning. It is our (very human) way of explaining this vast and seemingly undominatable world and, yes controlling it. We entertain, distract and teach ourselves by telling stories and listening to them; be it a random occurrence in the street, a parable in the classroom or even gossiping. We internalise that which is incomprehensible to us and shape it in a way which we can approximate and understand individually.

This, to my mind, is also the reason why we stop in our tracks if a story just does not add up. Our very own existence, neurally and socially, continually depends on our ability to discern a true narrative from a false one. Even historically we tend to categorise in more or less interrelating stories, going so far as to define ourselves and our dead by finding the 'story of our life'. We are - bearing cultural differences, tastes and variation in mind - sensitive of stories and storytelling. Depending on what we expect from a certain narrative, we may thus feel frustrated, disconnected or even betrayed.

A story ceases to exist if it cannot stay true to itself or at least the cultural ramifications in which it is situated. Our sense of storytelling is so keen that it can unmask a false narrative and shatter the very illusion it created.

This is what I wanted to touch upon in my personal piece. I want to show that a human story, a life, is bereaved of its authenticity the moment we deny and ignore our most defining moments, rewriting or retelling them into something of less value. No one wants to read or hear a story in which nothing happens and no development occurs.

As you can surely see, my project is not fully developed yet and I am still considering minor changes and visual tweaks to the story. Furthermore, I am not yet fully convinced whether I want to simply let my character die in the end or show her reentering the scene once again. The latter will surely be apt to pose the question of how often she has already passed through the 'Chamber of Truth' and of how often she will need to enter it again to finally understand the sacredness of her narrative of life.