My journey as a storyteller probably began the minute I could talk. I am told that by second grade I was spinning tales at the dinner table that sometimes seemed never-ending. We had lovely tenants living two floors up and Joe loves to tell the story of how he could hear my dad through two floors, screaming the words, “Angie, Shut-up!” I was not deterred however. If I had a story to tell, usually about my school day, it was going to come out, one way or another.
Fast forward some fifty plus years and I would find myself sharing my adventures with my team of translators. Sometimes they were about a translation appointment with parents, sometimes it was about family. I always encouraged each team member to then share a story of their own.
When I was a few months away from retiring, one of my team members came in to my office, closed the door and sat down. She said to me, in no uncertain terms, “You must put all your stories into a book.” and that I had to continue telling my stories after I left! She was my smartest, most ambitious employee and I felt I should at least take her advice to heart and think about it. As many of you may know however, when you leave a stage, era or time in your life behind, you need to move on and sometimes this means tucking all things related, into a box, putting the lid on it, taping it down tight, metaphorically, and stashing it away. This is what I did. That was May of 2018.
April 1, 2019, was the birthday of Giasera. I went out to lunch with a friend from a networking group, her name is Arianna. Her specialty was coaching. If you were lost in your career and were seeking direction, she was the one to talk to. We were talking about children; mine were grown and she was pregnant with her first, career history and life in general. We were enjoying each other’s company when, out of the blue she said, “You need to consider speaking to people in public and in order to lend more weight to your stories, you should put them in a book!” I responded with something like, “we hardly know each other, we’ve had lunch twice, where on earth did that advice come from?” The rest is a blur. Something about hearing me tell several stories in the little time we’d spent together and how I’d captured her total attention and how well I spoke! I said HA! – and then magically I remembered what my fellow employee had said. They were both so adamant about their wishes for me. How was I so slow in getting the message that I had been enamored with telling stories most of my life?
Everything moved quickly from this date forward. I shared my excitement with my hubby; he got excited with me! I needed a name. Everything I do/have in life gets a name … I had just ordered new personalized plates for my car which, after much consideration, would read GIASERA, a combination of my two granddaughters’ names! WHY NOT? Giasera Enterprises – birthdate April 1, 2019! I shared my excitement with my kids. My son said to me, “Mom, I just met the perfect person for you to connect with, her name is Liz Warren! You must take one of her storytelling classes!” This is happening.
I will share one more juicy tidbit with you – as I was standing in a parking lot staring at my new license plates several weeks later, after meeting a friend for coffee it came to me . . . Gia Sera in Italian means Already Evening. This is already the evening of my life’s journey and I couldn’t love it more.
The image at the top of the post can be found here.
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