Telling life's story

"Life, you'll notice, is a story. Life doesn't come to us like a math problem. It comes to us the way a story does, scene by scene." --John Eldredge

John Eldredge begins his book, "Epic," by talking about how each of our lives is part of a much bigger story; one that has been going on for many years.

I found this quote, from that book, last week while I was reading. It stuck with me.

To me, this makes sense. I don't see things in numbers, I don't find mathematical solutions to problems, I tell stories. More importantly, I tell other's stories.

One of my favorite shows is "How I Met Your Mother," which airs on Mondays on CBS. The main idea behind this show is that a father is telling his two teenage children the story of how he met their mother. Pretty straightforward, right? It is now in Season 5 and continues growing in strength.

Robin Scherbatsky, played by Colbie Smulders, is a main character in this show. Scherbatsky is a television news reporter who, when she began her career, was working at a small station doing human interest type stories.

There is a particular scene in "The Return of the Shirt" (Season 1) where she is interviewing an older gentleman, who is the oldest horse and buggy driver in the city. Throughout the episode she had begun to doubt the importance of her job. This gentleman, named Henry, made her rethink that.

Over the years, Henry had had the honor of driving people such as Mickey Mantle, which he explains during the scene. However, to him, that was nothing compared to the experience she was giving him.

"...but the most exciting moment?
That would have to be this one,
right now," Henry said.

"What?" Scherbatsky asked.

"Look at me, I'm on TV.
I never thought I'd have my story told.
Thank you, Ms. Robin Scherbatsky. Thank you."

"It's an honor to tell your story, Henry," Scherbatsky said.

This is true of everyone. We are a world full of storytellers and full of people with stories needing told.

Over the past week, I had the opportunity to witness this firsthand. For the previous issue of The Patriot, I interviewed a good friend and coworker of mine, Erin Engel, for the senior spotlight. Engel is student teaching and will be graduating in May.

When I interviewed her, I could tell she was nervous and a little excited. However, I didn't realize just how excited she was until the paper came out.

As soon as I saw her that night, she told me what a great job I did. Then, she proceeded to make sure that the rest of our RA staff knew that I had written an article about her and put it in the paper. For her, it was a pretty exciting thing.

This is when I instantly thought back to Henry in "How I Met Your Mother" and fully realized how much people want to have their stories told. We all want to matter to someone.

We all want someone to notice and, even they don't give us a place in the newspaper or a sound byte, that they see and say something. It's important to know that someone else thinks that you or what you do is important.

Sometimes that can brighten a person's entire day.

There are so many bad stories in the newspaper or on television. But if you look closely enough, there are good stories too. There are stories that are meant to lift your spirits and brighten your day.

And they are just as important as those bad ones, even if we as journalists don't always give them top priority.

It's our job as journalists to tell those stories because, at the end of the day, they truly matter and we want others to have an opportunity to know that as well.