Sharing your story is important

!The moment you feel, you’re nobody-but-yourself

!How could you live and have no story to tell? —Fyodor Dostoevsky

!Everybody is talented —Brenda Ueland

!No one can tell it for you —Ruthanne Reid

Telling your story and having people listen is good medicine. It turns off your body’s stress responses. It releases oxytocin, dopamine, nitric oxide, and endorphins. It relaxes your nervous system. But at once, in order to benefit, you have to let go of what other people will think. If you don’t, your story becomes watered down and half-true, and what more, you miss out on true connection.¹ This is [[ A story that doesn’t work ]].

Maia Kobabe encourages anyone thinking about it to tell their story through their art. The very people who hesitate to share are the people we need to hear from. It will also bring friendship, joy, community, and career possibilities.² Ayumi Horie says one’s artistic voice is correlated to sharing one’s truth, which is an act of resistance for marginalized individuals.³

! [[ If you break faith with what you know —James Baldwin ]]

Andy J. Miller says Every piece is like a self-portrait, even if it’s not autobiographical.

Mary Gauthier says telling her story allows her to cope or sometimes write a happier ending. In doing so, she goes from being the story to becoming the storyteller. Joe Pug adds, sometimes it’s not writing a happier story but [[ Integration|integrating ]] parts of himself into his persona.⁴

Brandi Carlile says she feels like she’s always coming out, feeling on the edge of being rejected, so she wrote her memoir to get it all out there. Her hardships are what have given her a story. In Brandi’s memoir she tells her truth and doesn’t mythologize herself or tie a bow on her past (which is [[ Spiritual bypassing ]]).⁵

There is universality in the particular. Generalism is an enemy of wonder. Art is conversation. Don’t fall for the idea that writing about your story is navel-gazing. Your story is likely connected to a larger issue. Research or outreach can be helpful for developing what you have to say about this larger issue. Uddipana Goswami says writing short memoirs and personal essays helped her heal. She shared these stories with others and began to find solidarity.⁶ Other people relate to stories of the human experience.⁷

! [[ I’m not so much a writer as I’m a citizen —James Baldwin ]]

Before sharing my story, it’s important to ask, Is this story only mine to share?