Voyage: A long journey to a place in my storytelling past.
Yay! It’s world storytelling day (WSD) today. If you think WSD is weird, take a moment to think about “Rubber eraser” day. Yeah, a day you celebrate (the invention of) rubber erasers. Now that’s weirder.
The first time I heard about WSD was in 2016 and for a storyteller, that year and the year after that were years I’d never forget because of what happened.
You see, I like to be very honest with myself — Failure makes me learn. Some of the biggest turnarounds I’ve had has been because I failed and then critically evaluated myself and re-strategized.
I’ve failed a lot of times at a lot of things. Some, embarrassing. Some, very, very embarrassing.
One time, I couldn’t gain admission into university and I remember crying in the bathroom. You think men don’t cry? Ha-ha. It was embarrassing because I was the head boy and almost all my friends got admissions.
Ok maybe “head boy crying in the bathroom” isn’t an ideal picture to paint but hey!
Well, that was the last time I remember crying for any of my failures.
The next time I failed at something major was 2017’s WSD. That year’s theme was “transformation” and indeed, I was transformed.
Luckily in 2016, I joined a storytelling society in University when world storytelling day was around the corner. It was the first time I’ve heard of storytelling day and I was very excited about been a part of it. So, I quickly volunteered to come up with story ideas for the event.
Unfortunately, the event didn’t hold but I was still very passionate about the idea of a storytelling day. So, towards the end of 2016, I sent an email to the founders of the society asking to spearhead the event for the next year. They seemed excited about it too and in return, they promised to fund it.
I met with them a few times a week to work out the details of the event. I’d gathered volunteers. Prepared stories. We even exchanged about 30 emails.
This is the part where I’m supposed to create a suspense and let you long for when I’d let you in on what happened. But let’s do this instead. What do you think happened?
A. The event was canceled a day before.
B. The day went by like it was nothing.
C. The event happened but no one showed up.
What do you think, my dear fan?
— space intentionally left blank so you can pick an option —
Anyway, since you’ve decided to keep scrolling without making a guess, here goes:
“B” happened. Now you’re going to have to scroll back up for what “B” was. (Tongue out).
The day went by like it was nothing. (Now you’re almost cursing me for making you scroll back up when you could have found what “B” was on the next line. Sorry, fan.). So, the thing is, I didn’t notice how the founders gradually withdrew from the project. I should have read the signs. They were apparent but I didn’t see them.
Again, all my preparations went up in smoke just like that.
I was very angry. I was so angry, I went on autopilot on every other thing I was involved in — school, life etc. My autopilot mode is a defense mechanism I deploy to grieve or at the loss of something very significant to me. In this mode, I don’t think much. I don’t analyze much. I just do. I just follow the motions.
So I just went to class, took notes, ate, slept, repeat.
I wasn’t even angry at the founders; I was angry at myself. Angry that I didn’t see it coming. Angry that I didn’t factor this scenario into my plan. Angry that I overlooked it. And every time I thought about it, I got angrier. That’s why I go on autopilot in situations like that to avoid the self sabotaging effect anger causes.
I learned a huge lesson. When I asked them why the event didn’t hold, they said, “Not enough funding”. I was like, “but, you could’ve let me know and we’d have found sponsors or do it on a small scale”. There was no response. Now I don’t assume anymore in projects. Whether I’m in charge of a project or not, I ask questions to get a full idea of the project’s status. I make sure I check all the boxes.
As this year’s theme goes ; Voyage, take a journey into your past and ask yourself how many major things you’ve failed at. Which one can you never forget? And what did you learn from it?
Or you could take a journey into the future. What do you want to be in 5 years? How would you go about it? What path would you take?
Happy world story telling day to you again!
