Читать книгу Storyworthy - Matthew Dicks - Страница 15

STORY BREAK

Naked in Brazil

I’m telling stories to an audience of about seven hundred high-school students at an American school in São Paulo, Brazil, in the summer of 2015. When I finish performing, I open the session to questions. They come fast and furious.

I love Q&A. Ask me a question, and I’ll tell you a story.

I’ve been answering questions for about fifteen minutes, handing out prizes to students who ask me especially challenging questions, when a student asks me:

“You write novels. You blog every day. You write musicals and magazine articles. You tell stories on stages. Why? Why do you share so much of yourself?”

I stop. I think for a moment. I’ve never been asked this question before.

An unexpected answer comes to mind. “I think . . .” I say slowly, wondering if the answer I’m about to give is correct. Trying it on for size. “I think,” I repeat, “that I’m trying to get the attention of a mother who never paid me any attention and is now dead and a father who left me as a boy and never came home.”

It’s a remarkable thing. I have been writing every single day of my life since I was seventeen years old, without exception. I have been blogging every single day of my life since 2003, sharing my thoughts, ideas, complaints, and moments from my life with thousands of readers. I’ve been publishing novels since 2009. And I’ve been standing on stages since 2011, spilling my guts, sharing my deepest, darkest secrets and most embarrassing, hilarious moments, and not once did I ever ask myself, “Why?”

“Why do you do it, Matt? Why do you share so much of yourself with the world?”

Now I know. Standing in the carpeted aisle of an auditorium five thousand miles from home, I have stumbled upon the answer to a question I never asked.

That is storytelling at its finest.

The auditorium goes silent. I go silent. Seven hundred teenagers stare at me, waiting for my next move.

After a moment, I say, “Okay, remember when we talked about finding those five-second moments in our lives? Those moments of transformation? Realization? I think I’m having one right now. Yup. I am. Definitely.”

I still stand by that answer today. I have yet to craft or tell the story about the time I discovered my primary reason for writing and telling so many stories (in front of seven hundred Brazilian teenagers), but I will someday.

The young lady who asked me that question received a prize that day.