How did you feel about using digital video as a way to craft and tell your story?

I would have never believed it could be possible if I hadn't done it myself. Learning the tools was challenging -- actually, I never mastered any of the tech aspects of the storytelling, instead I muddled along and asked for a lot of help from the teachers. But in terms of using digital video … I have always said that I think people care more about my story in digital story format than if it were in a poem or spoken live to an audience. Because society connects media with authority, I actually think people believe my story more and are less likely to turn away from it because it's in a normalized format, that is, like television. I think that using music and images helps people to see the story more; where their own imagination of what my words are saying might be more tame or even worse, seeing images helps them stay connected to the story, helps them keep listening, and perhaps, listen more deeply.

What do you think is the power of telling stories through this method?

Seeing my own story, hearing it, and having it screen in front of hundreds of others, makes me feel like my story has really been heard and now, that I can grow beyond it, heal it, and make peace with it in the world.

Who have you shared your story with? What responses have you received?

I have shared my story with nearly all my friends, and sometimes I have used it to tell new friends this part of my life. That has sometimes been odd because my story is very deep/intense and shares a lot of information about my upbringing... sometimes its been too much to share too soon, and I forget about the power of it. I have shared the story with dozens of foster youth I work with, who also make digital stories about their lives. Seeing my story, and knowing me as the director (their boss) of a program, I think, tells them that people can survive trauma and live happy lives. Occasionally I get a person who tells me that I should move on. I had a therapist say that once after seeing the story. She was worried that I was holding onto a victim role in my life. I think she missed something about the story (and about me).

In what ways has the process of both creating and sharing your digital story contributed to change in you? (if it has ...)

Okay, the simple thing: when you have a product you have created, something that was emotionally and intellectually challenging, I think it improves your self-esteem. That's easy. Otherwise, I think making the story and having it now to watch again, reminds me of how I've grown, marks a moment in time when I felt one way, allows me to ask myself questions that are specific, questions about how I feel about my mother now, how I feel about the world now. How I feel about domestic violence and forgiveness, how I feel about relationships and suffering and joy, and how to find it at any time.

Do you it;s important to connect survivors globally, and how useful is digital storytelling in this?

Wow, I would love that. It seems to me that some profound healing could happen when survivors from different locations share their experiences, their cultures, their communities, their answers, their lives and sorrows and joys. Sign me up.

Is there anything else you’d like to express, about your story, about the process of making it...etc?

It makes me happy to know that I made a story that can be of use to others in their education and healing processes. I am grateful to be included.