Webinar Report - "Storytelling in the Time of COVID-19" with Amy Hill, StoryCenter


Fascinated by the concept of storytelling, we attended a webinar by Story Center, on the 9
 of October 2020, curated by Ms. Amy Hill. Story Center is a USA based organization that creates a space for listening to and sharing stories. Each webinar is about 1 hour, some are free to attend and just require a prior registration. This is an interesting platform for anyone who loves an English-speaking group to collectively share your stories, listen to others, and ponder upon various topics of current and general importance. The topic of the webinar was Storytelling in the times of COVID.

Storytelling is a powerful tool to convey your thoughts with conviction. Given that people relate to a story with its emotions beyond mere words, it becomes important to nurture this method of communication, as it can potentially reach a larger audience. In a situation where we are stranded in our homes with the pandemic, stories of people from different walks of life and from different parts of the world can keep us motivated, help us socialize and be the change in someone in need. This webinar session hosted participants mainly from the USA, every participant shared a story that was centered about the situation surrounding this pandemic. Each story brought out the struggle during the pandemic, from hospital situations, daily chores and the fight for life!We lived through each story through its narration.

Storytelling is a powerful tool to convey your thoughts with conviction. Given that people relate to a story with its emotions beyond mere words, it becomes important to nurture this method of communication, as it can potentially reach a larger audience. In a situation where we are stranded in our homes with the pandemic, stories of people from different walks of life and from different parts of the world can keep us motivated, help us socialize and be the change in someone in need. This webinar session hosted participants mainly from the USA, every participant shared a story that was centered about the situation surrounding this pandemic. Each story brought out the struggle during the pandemic, from hospital situations, daily chores and the fight for life!We lived through each story through its narration.

This webinar is a reminder that you're not alone in this fight against the situations that the pandemic has created. Two stories caught our attention, for its narration and writing style! 

The first one was about a normal household, where Ms. Katie, the mother is concerned about the whereabouts of her teenaged daughter. She spoke about how her daughter was distressed with the whole situation of the pandemic, that she could not meet her friends, and anxious about what was in store next. She described about how one day, her daughter stood silently beside her and observed her mother do her routine chores, which I am sure one wouldn't appreciate in a normal day of life. She described the silence so vividly, and how sometimes silence speaks more than words. This was followed by a conversation between the concerned mother and the fragile teenager, about anxiety, about friends, and about life. 

If not this situation, otherwise a rebel teenager would not have found comforting silence and reassuring words from her mother amidst the cacophony of the house that she loathes.

Another interesting story was about Ms. Linda who describes her experience visiting the hospital during this pandemic. The anxiety associated with visiting the hospital for an ailment during a pandemic puts several thoughts in perspective. The whole ambience is very disturbing. However, this story is not about struggle, but rather about the positivity Ms. Linda found in the difficult ambience to fight her ailment. When Ms. Linda had to undergo a minor surgery during the pandemic, she was worried and anxious about the environment in the hospital, where she shared her ward with another person; This person changed her perspective about life. Her partner in the ward was a 102-year-old independent women.It's baffling as to how this 102-year-old women, fought her hip fracture with so much grit and courage. She was not just an inspiration to Ms. Linda but also to the doctors and nurses who treated her. The old lady shared her life experience with Ms. Linda, where she tells her about how she had fought another pandemic in the early 1900's, how life has treated her henceforth and more importantly how she lives her life independently with minimum help even at this juncture . This is an inspiration for the younger generations like us to learn from and tread our paths fearlessly and optimistically.

As a conclusion of this webinar, Ms. Amy so gracefully, gave her opinion about each story. She connected with the idea of ​​the story rather than emphasizing on how it had to be told. She also insisted that each story is very powerful and deserves to be told to larger audiences. As a follow up, Ms. Amy also shares the transcript of your story which helps you to recall the piece that you have narrated, and hence to refine and pen down your story as a written piece of article.

The art of storytelling is to make the listener imagine, feel, and live something he has never seen before. The listener connects with the story for the emotion, which is far more powerful than mere scripts. He connects with the characters and finds himself as the part of the act. This way, one always registers a message more strongly than any other mode of communication; storytelling usually has the least loss of information, and hence is a powerful tool to communicate.  

While we all tread a path with a unilateral view, listening to stories of different people broadens our perspective. It is important listen to others and also share our experience, for unaware, you might touch many lives!

You can visit  www.storycenter.org  and register to their webinars if it interests you.

PS: The names of the participants of the webinar: Ms. Linda and Ms. Katie are fictional, as their true identities cannot be revealed. However, the stories are true and speak voluminous!

 

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Im Folgenden haben wir Ihnen Neuigkeiten, eigene Gedankengänge sowie Beobachtungen aus der Welt der Weiterbildung zusammengestellt.

Schauen Sie doch einfach einmal rein!

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