My road to storyteller

Since early childhood I have been surrounded by stories. At every family holiday, get together and dinner many conversations revolved around stories. My mother’s family owns a century and half farm in Eastern Iowa; my grandfather was born and died in the same house and that house was my second home. Whether the stories were about neighboring farms, family that wasn’t present or ancestors these stories were always rich and full of emotion. I have known my grandfather’s father and grandfather on a first name basis since I was 5 through the telling of their stories. I also grew up with my parents running a homeless shelter through the Catholic Worker Organization. When I was little the stories of the men, women and families they provided hospitality to, as well as the neighborhood I grew up in, had a deep effect on me and my life. I was taught at a young age that everyone has their journey in life and one of the most important things we can do for another human being was to listen and then help them along in that journey. I would sit in the common room with my parents or another adult who worked there and listen to the interviews that would determine whether the person could stay and how long. I became attached to many of our residents and I love to listen to the stories about me growing up there.

Here is the Peter Maurin House, one of the houses we lived and provided hospitality in.

And here are some of our guests.

As I grew up I developed a large personality and love for telling stories to my friends and family. I entered college unfocused and undirected and I left (7 years later) with no idea what I was going to do with my degree and a lifetime worth of loans.

I got a job as a leasing agent for a large apartment complex and I liked it well enough. I got to be around different types of people every day and liked hearing about why they were moving and helping them on that journey. I made great money because I was really good at listening to and connecting with people. However, I didn’t like my job. I had to be pushy and the people I worked for were racist and rude. A friend noticed a part time in the paper at a local library and suggested that I apply. It was not only a cut in hours, but also a significant cut in pay so even though I knew I would love the job I was very reluctant at first. I applied and got the job and it was a few years before I received full time and a few more years before I started making a salary I was happy with. From the moment I started at the library I knew I had found my forever career; working at the library was something that I enjoyed, that I was good at and that fulfilled me.

When I started working in a library I would always say that I liked to do a little bit of everything, which made circulation and patron services a perfect place and I thought that I would eventually like to be a director. I was surprised that as I continued to work in a library I actually developed a preference to something more specialize. I was drawn to working with children so I offered to fill in for our children’s librarian and do a storytimes. The first storytime I did I read a book called Always A Lot of Heinies at the Zoo 

but I was very nervous and read the title as Always A Lot of Hyenas at the Zoo....

...pretty different. Because of my lack of practice and confidence I thought there was no turning back once I had made this mistake and continued to read the whole book replacing heinies with hyenas. I got a couple of dirty looks from parents but the kids didn't mind at all and this was great lesson to me, kids loved to be read to, usually regardless of the circumstances. Each storytime I do, especially when I am trying something new, I remind myself to have fun and not to worry if I make a mistake, most of the parents won't care and the kids probably won't even notice.

I consider myself a natural social storyteller, but I it took a lot of practice to become a successful professional storyteller. I love telling stories because I can always improve and I love doing storytimes because I can make a storytime my own, my own theme, choose my own books. I love the freedom to express myself.