A Meaningful Learning Experience
One of the most meaningful learning experiences I have heard was during a conversation about my anxieties about the future with the sister. I am lucky to have a sister who is four years older than me and a great role model who I can often take inspiration and advice from. Since she is four years older, I was able to see her go through high school, her undergraduate degree, masters, and then career right before I did.
I expressed to my sister not too long ago about my worries about the future after realizing I no longer wanted to pursue my original career plan and not knowing which direction to go in. We had a conversation over my interests and possible career plans, but I still was feeling fairly stressed out over the uncertainty. My sister described her own anxieties with the uncertainty around applying to medical school and having so many factors and possibilities out of her control. She told me about how uncertainty is something we have to accept and to focus on what we can control. She described how she has learned to grasp the idea of change and control her anxiety with distraction, exercise, and surrounding herself with supportive people.
This story was so impactful for me because it was so personal and related to what I was saying that I was able to apply so many of her own lessons that she had learned to my life. I was able to reflect on how she has changed over the past few years with regards to her anxiety and gave inspiration to brainstorm what could help my anxiety. The senses that appealed to me were mostly physical when thinking about not only the anxiety she went through, but also the relief she found. The storytelling techniques that I noticed she used was focusing on the learning incomes but keeping her story relevant to mine, using a conversational and personal tone, and including active learning to help me come up with solutions to my anxieties.
My Storytelling Techniques
The storytelling techniques that are instinctive to me are using a conversational tone, including active learning, and adding visual elements. Whenever I am telling stories I have to pull up a picture of what I am talking about either on Google or in my photos. I believe this is because I am quite a visual learner and want to keep my listener engaged. I additionally don’t think that having a friendly, conversational tone is difficult for me and I honestly prefer avoiding formal language in conversation unless necessary. I find that people try to use larger, more advanced words when they speak formally, and this can be a barrier to those who have auditorial processing issues.
I definitely have to think about keeping my stories short and relevant to the topic at times, especially when I am excited about the topic. I tend to have disorganized stories at times which can make my stories a little all over the place, but I usually find my way back to the topic after a couple minutes. I find that having a plan for the story, such as a mental sort of storyboarding, helps me stay on topic and voice the key points I was wanting to make.
My Twine Story
https://twinery.org/2/#/stories/db163235-a8c5-4949-9d6f-0f80a389b495/play
Here are some screenshots from the Twine story!
Hello Kylie!
It is amazing to have such a supportive sibling. I also have a brother who is five years older than me. My brother tends to give me advice that might sound harsh, but it’s very realistic. This suits me because I tend to overthink and worry a lot about things that haven’t even happened yet. My brother also helped me out of the slump and anxieties I had a couple of years ago! Siblings give us the power to move forward, learn from them, and take inspiration from them. I definitely think stories coming from someone we share blood with naturally help us immerse ourselves in their stories as they are very relatable and personal.
Using visual elements is my personal technique as well as I think it helps the audience to fully grasp the story.
The link to your Twine story seems not to work – I would love to see it once you take a look at it! 🙂