There are times when the stories in my life are not worth telling. Life can be pretty boring at times, and when it does I gravitate to the stories of others; friends, family, or fictional characters.  Getting lost in another world is rejuvenating for me. I lose myself in the adjectives and metaphors strung together to create a world unlike my own. I am swept away in movements deliberately choreographed to progress the story along. I am moved when words and instrumentation come together and create images in my head. In these moments I get to meet new people and discover new places I’ve never been before.

 

Of all the books I’ve read it is the stories of two young girls, whose original books I have not yet read, that I have found I relate to most.  The tales of Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz are classics that almost everyone knows from their movie adaptations. What I love about these stories is that they are wonderful stories about self-discovery and growing up. Each girl, feeling lost and uninspired in her life, dreams of a world of adventure where she is the hero.

 

Both stories center around a young girl who goes looking for herself in a fantasy land, wanting to live in her dreams. They are so much alike! Alice’s rabbit hole is Dorothy’s tornado, the means of travel to their fantasy world. Dorothy’s wizard is Alice’s white rabbit, the being they seek in order to get back home. The Red Queen of Wonderland is parallel to the Wicked Witch of the West, a villain bent on power over her realm. Alice’s Cheshire cat guides her on her journey just as Glinda does for Dorothy. Both girls are even clothed in light blue and white attire, symbolizing their youth and innocence.

 

My connection to these two stories and these fictional women is really no surprise when I think about it. Their stories are about finding yourself. Both of their stories begin with them feeling emotionally lost and it takes getting physically lost to find their way back.

 

I also use the stories of others to connect with the world through music and theater. Throughout my life I have loved theater. Watching it, performing it – all of it. I put on the crown and became the spider Anansi. I chased after the ruby slippers as the Wicked Witch of the West. As Cinderella’s step mother, I tried to shove my foot into a shoe that would never fit. I became someone else and told their story for a while.

 

I was the child who sat on the hill at recess and drew the house behind the school. I was the child who played make believe and wrote plays to perform with her brother and cousins. I was the teenager who got detention for daydreaming in class and doodling. I am the adult who imagines a life and a world filled with possibilities. I am a dreamer. All of this dreaming I do? It has made me realize that anything is possible, that I can do anything as long as I put my mind to it. All of this dreaming I do is a form of storytelling and it keeps me alive.

 

My stories may never be important enough to grace the pages of a history book, but they are stories worth telling. I would not be the person I am today without the events that have happened to me, in the way they happened to me; the struggles, celebrations, and people in my life made me who I am today. So I tell my story and I write my own history book, although in my case maybe it’s a herstory book. HER STORY. My story.