Day 31

Day 31:

Stories are everywhere in our lives. They are written both consciously and unconsciously by everyone, every day, and we experience so many of them that we often don't realise that they are there. Stories are constantly happening to you and being written by you, and every person who is exposed to every story has a different interpretation of it.

We tell stories to ourselves in our minds, which tailor our opinions about ourselves and others. For example, you might think to yourself "I did really badly at that test today, I suck and I'm too lazy to do anything about it". That is a story that you tell yourself, based on your beliefs: your goals, your expectations, your perception of the test, your perception of what a good grade is. your excitement or fears about getting a 'good' or 'bad' grade, etc, etc. When you get the results the next day, you may be pleasantly surprised by doing better than you thought, or have your story reinforced to you by getting what you were expecting. You may even tell this story to your peers, the story of how you thought you would get a 'bad' score, and now you have and how it makes you feel. However, the story may come across very differently to your peers. You may have a very high standard for what you consider to be a 'good' score, so they may tell themselves the following story...

"I don't see why they think so badly of themselves! Their score was way better than mine, but they think they are a failure. I thought I did well at first, but now I think I must be really stupid...". This story is born from their beliefs, goals, expectations, perception of the test, perception of you and your intelligence, perception of what a 'good' grade is etc, etc, etc. Despite the exact same purely factual information being presented (the results that you both got on the test), both of you have told yourself completely different stories about your outcomes. 

This applies to almost all situations in life. The people who created the test, for example, did so based on stories. Stories about what makes someone smart, what is important to know and what is not, what the results will do to various statistics and the impacts that they will have etc, etc. This is why I tell myself (and you now) the story of how tests and grade boundaries are not based on fact, but are arbitrary and created in line with the beliefs of the people who made them. You can interpret that story in countless different ways; it may be affected by the use of certain words and the connotations they hold for you, as well as your beliefs based on stories you have already experienced.

Stories are how we learn from birth, and it has been this way since the dawn of humanity. They are unavoidable, and you will experience stories from countless different people. My story to you, is to not shy away from them. Embrace this fact of life, and use your interpretations of those stories, to find your own. I look forward to experiencing your stories, someday.