Today I taught week #2 of my 6 week 'Unlock Your Personal Stories' workshop at my local library, near my home nestled in the foothills of the Mt Lofty Ranges in Adelaide. I was tired this morning, having sat up until 1.30am to participate in a webinar with colleagues in the US and Canada, and I wasn't sparking on all cylinders as I stumbled into the shower before breakfast, thinking about the 10am class. As I washed my hair, I thought about the group of people who'd met last week for the first week of the 6 week journey back into their early lives and I recalled the enthusiasm on their faces as I opened their eyes and their minds to the storehouse of treasured memories lying within themselves.
My passion for helping everyday people discover and reveal the dormant stories of their own and other family members drives me enthusiastically every day. I am a woman on a mission! I never tire of facing a new class of people eager to learn how to put together an invaluable legacy for future family members. "Wouldn't you like to be remembered as more than a photo of an elderly grey haired and bespectacled relative in an old photo on the mantlepiece?" I ask. Those brave souls who accept my challenge discover many latent talents within themselves - how to write their stories creatively in a style that others want to read, that very few want to start a story, like David Copperfield's "I was born.....", that it's the little personal anecdotes that enhance and add life to their story, and much, much more.
Today's class focussed on using IT to help in all aspects of gathering, organising and preserving stories. Our library has a brand new IT suite, enabling me to sit at the front computer , tap in to the keyboard my instructions for opening a file and a folder etc, which then appeared on the large screen for the students to follow. Class members also learned how to scan and digitise a photo and to upload it into a flash drive to take home and save the photo in their home computer.
The last exercise was opening their own Shoe Box account in Legacy Stories. Most were astounded to learn that their precious stories, digitised photos and documents, audio and video clips can be safely stored and preserved for the future online. One lady wants to now scan some ancient family records dating back to the 1700's this way and can't wait to try to explain this to her mother, a spritely 103 year old lady!
This class and I have 4 more action packed hours together as we journey together on our Magical Mystery Tour from our respective pasts, gathering stories, tales, incidents, encounters with both famous and infamous people along the way and into the future. All of these precious snippits, tibits, bits and pieces, plus odds and sods will be carefully added to the sturdy framework of their life story along with priceless photos to enhance and embellish their legacy for future family generations. Then, through the rapid advances of technology, each student's stories will be preserved for the future in their shoe box, where other family and friends may view and comment on each story, adding yet another facet to each recollection.
Great grandchildren of the students will be able to look at the family photo and point to my students, proudly telling visitors "That's my great grandfather/mother who was .......... and did......in......." That's a vast improvement on just being a dusty old forgotten photo, isn't it?
Have YOU started you Magical Mystery Tour yet? Let me know if I can help.