People's Stories

I’ve always enjoyed biographies. I remember one New Year’s Eve in high school when my friends were planning a big party that would start around 9pm with a dinner beforehand. I was anxious to celebrate, but had received plentiful subtle hints (and some not so subtle) that the dinner was to be for “couples only”, and since most of my friends were dating each other at the time and I wasn’t, that meant I had to spend most of the evening by myself. To keep from moping around I headed to Barnes Noble and came across a biography of Marilyn Monroe. I started reading and realized that there was so much in the story of her life that I could relate to. Since I was having trouble relating to some of my friends at the time, this was very powerful. I became absorbed in the story of her life. Since I’ve been in college I haven’t spent much time with biographies, though I’m not sure why. I recently splurged on Living History by Hillary Clinton, whom I admire very much. As I started reading, I had the same feelings I had when reading the Marilyn Monroe biography. I feel inspired and powerful. I think by reading biographies you are able to connect with the subject and realize that they are just “regular people”. I feel like I can live just as powerful a life as they can. I also read RoadTrip Nation by Nathan Gebhard and Mike Marriner from cover to cover on Friday. The book is a culmination of the two college students’ experience driving around the US in a RV, interviewing people (executives like Michael Dell and Leonard Riggio) that they found interesting. They made the interviews and their findings into a book. Reading this gave me the same feelings – that I have all the power to achieve what these people (both the authors and the people they interviewed) have. It has all spurred me into wanting to learn more about people I admire. It’s extremely motivating! I think that by listening to people’s stories, I can create a better story of my own.