Stories of Connections: A playlist of stories from Storytellers Project, Week 8
Even when you need to #StayAtHome, we know you want to feel connected to your community. And creating empathy and understanding is vital in times of uncertainty.
So the Storytellers Project has put together a playlist of true, personal stories shared by your neighbors from across the country. These stories are uplifting. They showcase perseverance, family bonds, life-changing decisions, love and new beginnings as we connect over our most deeply held values. Look for it every Thursday.
Week 8 celebrates our connections to others and insights we gain from relationships.
Reach out and touch someone
The spirit of gratitude at Christmas motivates a man to call all his phone's contacts. Anwar Newton starts in the morning in the A's and makes it to the Z’s by evening. He's mortified to ping one-night stands, saddened to connect with old friends who are struggling and he realizes that for all of our contacts, he needs to be doing a lot more authentic connecting in life.
AUDIO: Listen to Anwar's story here.
LISTEN TO WEEK 1: Uplifting Stories that restore our faith in humankind.
‘It’s not the gift, it’s the thought’
Even though Julie Makinen’s mom develops dementia and gets further along in her memory loss, she still never forgets a special milestone. Whether birthdays or Christmas, Julie's mom gifts each person with a pair of jeagins. Julie is both amused and comforted by the annual gift that her mother thinks is both original and something no one has ever received because every time a new pair is sent, it's an indication that her mother's memory isn't totally gone because she has remembered the occasion. And, as the saying goes and takes on greater meaning given Julie's mom's health, "It's not that gift that matters, but the thought."
VIDEO: Watch Julie share her story here with humor and warmth.
LISTEN TO WEEK 2: Stories about adventures that show us how strong we can be.
A friendly gesture
Megan Finnerty was a recent college grad when she moved from Indiana to Arizona for an internship at the Arizona Republic. She didn't know anyone and was very lonely being in a new city and away from her twin sister. She found grocery shopping, movie going and general living sad and alienating. Then, while covering a story, she was introduced to someone who would become one of her best friends.
AUDIO: Listen to Megan share her story in Arizona.
LISTEN TO WEEK 3: Stories that confirm family is everything.
A new lease on life
When she was in her 20s, Bethany Yeiser, lived homeless on the streets of Los Angeles for four years enduring an extended episode of schizophrenia. She recounts specific episodes of powerful delusions. One day, the police took her to a psych ward for an evaluation and contacted her parents. Her parents brought her home and got her into treatment, which took months of trial and error on various medications. Finally, she found something that worked, and she was able to get her college degree. She now teaches piano part time and has a full life.
VIDEO: Listen as Bethany shares her story in Cincinnati, Ohio.
LISTEN TO WEEK 4: Stories that show us we have the strength and fortitude to persevere.
Leaving a legacy
Sarah Ventre tells us about moving to Washington, D.C., to take an unpaid internship at NPR. She didn't fit in and only made one friend, while living far from her job, doing a miserable side-hustle. But her one friend is a life-changing one, who crashed the NPR Thanksgiving potluck with her, and who encourages her work, and who stays in touch with her, accepting her for who she is. When she learns of his death years later, she realizes that friend was the key to an internship that set her up for her career, and current happiness.
AUDIO: Listen to Sarah's story.
Once upon a time in Hollywood
Tony Felice decides to pursue his dream of becoming an actor in his 30s in 1994. He moved to Hollywood, got some bit parts, even co-starred with Florence Henderson. "Oh my god, I used to watch you on TV when I was a little boy,” he told her. “How nice," she said. While working as a server at Henry Mancini's 70th birthday party, he faked being “a star.” He judged himself for not fitting in. After four years, he moved to Arizona to be close to family and now wishes he could go back in time and talk to his 30-year-old self. "I want to tell that person, Hollywood … is a place, not a referendum on your character."
AUDIO: Listen to Tony's story.
A note from our National Presenting Sponsor, Humana
Building a Book-Loving Community Online
Raise your hand if you miss book club meetings.
If your hand is up, you understand the power of discussing a book’s plot and characters.
It’s important to connect and build community, especially as we’re quarantined in our homes. That’s why Humana’s Virtual Neighborhood Center began holding a new Facebook event – monthly book club meetings.
Rachael Holden, a health educator in North Carolina, led the first Humana Book Club virtual meeting. She discussed half of “The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry” by Gabrielle Zevin, responding to comments and questions submitted via chat. Next month, the group will meet again, concluding discussions on Zevin’s book and strengthening their book-loving community.
Social distancing measures that keep us safe from coronavirus are exposing what some were already struggling with – feelings of loneliness and social isolation. Take time to learn more about the importance of social connections to your health, and remember that you’re far from alone.
Coming Next Week
Week 9 showcases transformation and growth.
A young gay man goes to San Francisco to hang with friends and ends up learning about the AIDS crisis as he delivers medical marijuana to AIDS patients and realizes he's learning about a part of his heritage as a gay man that he never learned in school.
A man grows up blind and recounts how he grew into an adventurous young man, and found a sense of self through music.
A gay man contracts HIV even though he knows how to protect himself, and is filled with shame, but in accepting the diagnosis, he accepts his own flaws and becomes an advocate for those with HIV in Des Moines.
Jordan takes his older brother, John, who he idolized until he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, to see the "Avengers" and sees the two of them reflected in the narrative, realizing that sometimes we have to take care of our heroes.
A tattle-tale student grows up telling on people until she gets into high school and realizes that there is not actually a national cheaters registry and she feels foolish.
As little black kid, Evan can make anything out of Legos, and one day he makes a fake gun and points it out his window until his mom takes it away and makes him swear he will never do it again.