My mother always told me that I belonged on a stage somewhere. I participated in school plays, church plays, home skits. From a young age you could say I could have been a novice actor. I made friends easily, people were drawn to me and even though I wouldn’t consider myself Miss Popularity, I wasn’t in desperate need of human interaction. In high school, everything changed. I became more aware of myself, my skin, my hair, my body. I kept the insecurities silent and tried my best to seem like the bubbly, smiley girl everyone knew and adored. I was on the cheer team and participated in one play my senior year. Something was different, and I started to believe that my purpose in life would most likely be sedentary, cold and lonely – anything negative that my teenage melodramatic mind could imagine.
Years later, I found myself working at The Arizona Republic, participating in Arizona Storytellers, and even telling my own stories and cohosting the shows. I naturally eased myself onto the platform and I comfortably spoke to a room of strangers as if they were friends. I remembered what my mother said, “You belong on a stage somewhere,” and I remembered what an English professor told me “You’re a storyteller.” Each night I walked on that stage, I felt myself coming alive and reliving those moments of feeling heard by my community and rejoicing hearing others.
Not only have I learned that I have stories to tell, I’ve also learned that there is something inside of me that yearns to share thoughts with the world and yearns to hear others’ thoughts as well. My life has opened up in so many ways since being introduced to storytelling. I’ve always believed that the written word is powerful, but now I also understand the power in verbalizing those words. Will I be on a stage somewhere throughout my life? Who knows. Will I still share stories throughout my life? Yes, I will. And it will be on purpose.
(The picture at the top is Joanna emceeing an Arizona Storytellers event.)
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