The Stories We Choose to Tell

Every person carries a story.

Some stories are joyful. Some are painful. Some are still being written.

The problem is that we often reduce people to a single detail. A person becomes poor, unemployed, disabled, successful, educated, a migrant, a mother or a young person—and suddenly we think we know everything about them.

But people are more complicated than labels.

Good storytelling gives people the space to be fully human. It allows us to see their struggles without reducing them to their struggles. It allows us to celebrate their strength without pretending their lives are perfect.

This is why stories matter to me.

A good story does more than give us information. It makes us pause. It makes us care. Sometimes, it makes us recognize a part of ourselves in someone whose life looks completely different from our own.

And perhaps that is one of the simplest ways storytelling can bring people closer together.