Why storytelling is so important...

For as long as I can remember, I have loved stories. When I was maybe 10, I used to sneak books from the shelf and hide them in my room, so I could stay up reading by torchlight. I remember the terror of hearing footsteps and turning the torch off so no one would see the beam of light through the crack under my door, sitting and waiting as the footsteps faded, and then turning the torch back on to continue reading. This is how committed I was to Disney books, so you can imagine how much I love stories now I am older.

Stories have been around forever – many of them are considered a myth or a legend, but they have been told for centuries upon centuries. People have shared tales forever, and there is clearly a reason why this art has survived for so long when other things, such as crocheting or axe-throwing, are more difficult to come by in the modern day.

People used to tell stories about the gods, of great battles fought and the blossoming of love. The point of a story has always been awe, and recounting a tale of a warrior standing, waiting for battle is not particularly awe inspiring. A brave hero, however, defeating the enemy with a swift blow and turning to take on whomever else should dare to attack? A little stretching of the truth here and there does no harm.

And yet, things such as battle were not entertaining. They were brutal, deadly, terrifying – but if a medieval boy was to hear of the death and pain rather than the glory? The armies wouldn't have had any soldiers willing and ready to risk their lives. If a girl wasn't waiting for her knight in shining armour to come and whisk her away to a glamorous life? She might not find it in herself to get up in the morning to do her chores.

Stories always have a purpose. This can be glorifying battle to give soldiers the strength to pick up their weapons, or a world to escape into, to spend time in someone else's life, to sit back as they deal with problems that you need not worry about.

In a story, someone can tell their view, show the world what they see and how they see it. They can let their imagination flow. Anything can happen, for the mind is not confined by what is and what isn't, but rather what could be.

Coming away from the medieval timeframe my mind is stuck in, to a more modern perspective, stories have taken on a much wider range of possibilities. They are no longer limited to word of mouth, but instead, they are everywhere. Movies, books, television shows, podcasts, magazines, plays – there are endless amounts of different stories, and endless ways to live the story. For that is what a story is – it isn't something to listen to, or read, or watch, it is something to live, to enjoy. To feel the emotion of the characters, to learn their struggles and joys, to love and cry and learn.

When combining the imagination and storytelling, the outcome is something truly wondrous to behold. Not everyone resonates with the same story, just as not everyone gets along. If you're not expected to like everyone, why should you be expected to like every character, every world, every main love interest, every main character? Every person has a story to tell, and every person has a story to hear. It just might not be the one everyone else likes to listen to.

In the modern world, stories are everywhere. You can listen to real stories on the news, watch documentaries, and read articles, or consume fiction from a book or a television, online or offline. People still tell stories to each other, still exaggerate their own greatness or laugh at their own mistakes. And yet, in today's world, you need not look for long to fall into a completely different world and live alongside people who do not exist, in places that you may never visit, but can experience just the same.

Nearly everyone has heard the saying 'heroes get remembered, but legends never die'. People can be heroes, can carry out heroic deeds, but they are still only people. Not everyone can remember everyone who does anything heroic. Legends, however. People don't often talk of the men who led the Roman armies into battle, and many do not even know of the existence of some of these people. However to this day, we all know of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, about Robin Hood, and of the Loch Ness Monster. These are all stories that have been passed down, generation after generation, through families and spread across the world. Without stories, we wouldn't have legends, we wouldn't have folklore.

Without stories, there would be no magic in the world.

Storytelling is, and always has been, an important part of life, so if you have a story that you want to tell, just tell it. Someone is going to hear it, or read it, see it, and share it with someone else. Someone is going to find that story, and it is going to be just the thing they needed. Someone is going to find that story, and it is going to be the best thing that ever happened to them.

And if you're looking for stories? They're all around. You need only open your eyes, listen, breathe in, and imagine. There are stories everywhere, inside every person. If you listen to stories, you will learn more about the world than you ever thought possible.

Das Ende.

Once again, I googled that translation, I'm not a language whizz.

And that's all I have to say – I nearly ended this post multiple times, but there were too many things that still needed saying, so I kept writing. In my opinion, stories are one of the most important things in this world, and the art of storytelling is one that we must all work together to preserve.

That's all I have for now...

Bye!