Owning Our Story

Brené Brown

I noticed this whiteboard while visiting the doctor last week. I don’t know the context for the quote and I do not know the intention of its scribe. It was centrally posted near the exam rooms, in a non-public area of the office. I can only assume it moved someone greatly and that they felt coworkers and patients could benefit from its simple and often overlooked message. Please excuse the quality of the image, I shot it off the cuff.

While the whiteboard bestows some prominence in the office, a central place for important messages and communication, I imagined this writing down the road a few weeks, after everyone saw it a few times and its novelty wore off. After people had brushed up against it, smudged some of the letters, and the ink dried a bit and started to crack. I thought about its quiet power, still reminding its viewers to value their story and to fully own their experiences that brought them to their present destination.

Brené Brown probably wasn’t thinking about oral history when she wrote this. Perhaps she was thinking about personal narratives. In a period of personal doubt, seeing Brown’s quote did me some good. And it helped reinforce that Narrate is a valuable service. I believe that telling your story goes a long way toward ownership of your life and experiences.