life narratives (1)

The narratives of your life can be understood as memories entwined with structures of plot and theme: they can be dearly loved or hated, fragmented, buried, changeable, re-told and re-membered. They are identifiers of why and who we are and where we’ve been, and how we fit into the bigger narratives of history and culture.

Where do identity stories come from?

Lived experience, sure, but also family, media, peers, work, culture, and context. And we don’t always know the truth-claim or the origin of the story. Was that our lived experience or were we told the story so many times it has become that? Likewise, did that story really happen or was it a dream? What identity stories are we moving into or out of?

Are all your identity stories true?

Our stories can shape-shift over time as we remember them through the current lens. We sometimes live into labels, adding them into our stories without much conscious thought. Unfortunately, people will foist stories upon us for self-indulgent reasons. Stories are not always accurate; our own version can be skewed or truncated.

Who has the story-telling rights to your story?

I am challenged by this question often, especially when wrestling with oppression, colonization, and my own privilege (This will rightly be a forever challenge.). But I want to also challenge the viewing lenses for my personal stories, realizing that other people had a vested interest—whether for good or not-so-good—in shaping those stories and deciding which ones were allowed to be held and told.