Everyone has a story.
Everyone.
And the longer I live, the more I realize that those stories are fascinating. Yep. All of them. I went through a phase when I loved watching TV shows like StoryTrek, Who Do You Think You Are?, and The Generations Project because it turns out that regular, run-of-the-mill people like you and like me have stories inside of them that make me awe, wonder, cry, and think. Why aren’t we all telling more of our own stories? One of the reasons I blog is because someday when my children are grown and have children of their own, I want them to know the real me. I know a blog is selective and doesn’t reflect every aspect of my life, but I try hard to keep it real, and if nothing else, I have recorded some stories. I hope those stories will make them feel close to me and maybe even learn a few life lessons.
This spring, I am participating in a conference that is all about telling, finding, and recording real stories– your own and your ancestors’. I’m even teaching a class about “Recording Life Authentically,” but that’s only one of many, many workshops and resources available to help you learn how to write your own life story, do genealogy, discover the stories of generations past, and use all the cool technology that’s available to fuel and find our stories.
I think you should come.
Here are the details: March 21-23 in Salt Lake City at the Salt Palace Events Center. (If you’re old like me, you used to go to Jazz games there.) Guess what organizations are involved? Well, it was originally called the Story @ Home conference, a team effort with Cherish Bound and FamilySearch, and that conference has a specific track for bloggers. THEN, they merged with RootsTech conference, which is sponsored by a few organizations you might be familiar with: BYU, Ancestry.com, and National Genealogical Society to name a few. Basically, it’s going to be big and awesome.
Go here to learn a lot more about it and to get pricing. There are options as low as $19/day, with full-conference passes ranging from $39 to $149, depending on how much of the conference offerings you want access to. Notice that there’s a full-conference Story@Home track available (which includes the blogging classes) for $79.
For any of you photographer types–amateur or otherwise– check out this Instagram contest:
- Snap a picture you think tells a story. Examples include family, friends, places, events, mementos–anything that has meaning for you.
- Upload the photo to Instagram and share with us what story your photo tells. Include the hashtags #tellyourstory and #storyathome.
So, listen. You have a story. And it’s a lot more interesting than you think it is. Come learn how to tell it and record it and save it so that someday, your stories will be alive even when you’re not. Your children and grandchildren will love that. I promise.
Diapers and Divinity 
Sounds like a neat conference. I wish I could go….but I’ll be having a baby that weeek. I wanted to recommend a couple of fantastic books that tell people’s stories: Listening is an Act of Love and Mom: A Celebration of Mothers both by Dave Isay. These books have excerpts taken from NPR’s storycorps project. (Have you heard about this? google it!) These books are so moving, I cannot say enough about them.
Do you know when you’ll be presenting?
Michelle, I will be speaking on Saturday, March 23rd at 1:45 pm. Here’s a link to the schedule:
http://www.rootstech.org/schedule/sessions
I’ve been thinking about this all day and I wish that I could read what my family members felt and thought about certain things, how they perceived certain even s in history. This may sound strange but oh well I’ve been really interested in the Vietnam conflict lately and the events in our country that surrounded it. I would give anything to be able to read my Father’s thoughts on all of it, he rarely ever spoke of it. Had he been able to blog about it or had he kept a journal I would be able to see it all from his perspective. He did record his feelings in a sense through art but that is more abstract. My Mom is still with us and I am going to try to convince her to write some of this down, her perspective is equally fascinating to me, her perspective on everything but this in particular since she and my Dad were in the midst of it all. She rarely speaks of it as well, just that she never turned on the news during those three years that my Dad was over there, it would be fascinating and enriching to know how she felt and how she made it through such a tough time. Your post made me think of all of this. The conference looks amazing, wish I could go and I’d definitely bring my Mom. Thanks for sharing this…
Great idea, enjoy the conference.
I don’t even know when I am speaking, and I haven’t registered yet. I have two days to do it, and I will. I am so excited to come to Utah!