Finding Your Voice - Week One

This summer I am thrilled to be participating in the Find Your Voice class at rukristin.com.  It is a free eight week class that is all about embracing, finding and practicing with your storytelling voice.  I’m excited to strengthen my writing and photography skills  and see everything else the community is going to be doing.  I will be sharing on Facebook and Instagram, (with the hashtag #findyourvoice) and in the comments at rukristin.com.  Join the facebook group today (add link to facebook.com/groups/findyourvoice)  and share the excitement with all your friends!

Here is my Week One lesson.  The prompts that Kristin provided really got me to think and I had such an amazing time writing it out.  I'll be sharing each weeks lesson here on my blog (or so I hope, haven't been the best blogger in quite some time) and is another reason I signed up for Kristin's amazing workshop, to better my blogging skills and content.  So, here we go, it might be a bit of a crazy ride but I think it's going to rock!

What is storytelling to you?  What stories do you want to tell?

I’ve always told stories.  When I was a child it was my dream to be a writer, in fact, it still is today.  I would sit for hours in my bedroom and pen out little short stories and give them to my parents or grandparents.  My grandmother saved them all and put them into a scrapbook for me, which I still treasure.  When I was in 5^th grade I wrote a “mystery” that the ladies at my elementary school took and bound in a little book for me, then displayed it in the front hall case for all to see, I was so thrilled.  I keep that book dear to me and it is a reminder that, I AM a storyteller. I feel most peaceful and creative when my fingers are flying on the keyboard of my computer.  It feels wonderful to type and read and listen to my voice as the words appear on my screen.  I think I want to talk about my journeys in life.  My realities. The things I’ve experienced or struggled with, bullying, eating disorders, divorce and addiction.  I want to put it out there so that I don’t carry it alone. I want my daughter to know me, to understand who her mother is and was.  It would be amazing for me to publish a book that actually would be sitting on a bookstore shelf but as I write this now I am realizing that just typing it down, and leaving it for her make me all the storyteller I’ll ever need to be.

  Who are you?

Most days I don’t really know who I am.  I struggle with that specific question a lot.  I was a student until I dropped out of school; I was a girlfriend until I became a wife.  I was a wife and added in the title of mother.  I was a wife and mother until I was divorced.  Now I add the title of divorcee to my list.  I am more than just those titles.  I am a friend, a scrapbooker, a crafter, a lover of music, a movie buff, I’m faithful and loyal and ethical. I love chocolate and pizza and iced coffee, and my mom’s potato salad.  I love to sing and dance and laugh, and cry.  I am a Christian. I am serious and obsessive.  I am private.  I am scared.  I am sad.  I am lacking self-confidence.  I am a girlfriend, I am a mother, I am a daughter, and I am a sister. I am sensitive.  I am curious. I am patient. I am 50 years old and trying to find myself.  I am Cricket.