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ESSAY: Storytellers
Stories connect, influence and prompt one another. They are bestowed with the power to make us care, to be the seed of change and impetus for action.
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Everyone has a story and all good stories can touch people’s hearts. (Shutterstock/File)
W
hat crosses your mind when you hear or read a travel story? Many are not aware that it is a very influential means to smash down cultural barriers and help create a more tolerant, interconnected and loving word.
It is not a feature magazine story with lots of details about luxurious hotels, nor is it hard fact-based journalism investigating social injustice, corruption and poverty in certain countries.
Stories connect, influence and prompt one another. They are bestowed with the power to make us care, to be the seed of change and impetus for action. When we ask someone to give their time, money, skills and minds to communities or people in need, what we are really asking them to do is open their hearts and sympathize with someone they have never met.
Many people will do it owing to a universal faith that all humans are equal and the same. We are one. But we have different needs and desires. Maybe that could be a story.
People are likely to bond to a specific community because they want to read moving stories, such as about children in India who decide to receive polio vaccinations, loving stories from Syria, or that of a talented school girl in Afghanistan. A touching narrative has great power to unite its audience, especially when you combine that with traveling.
(Read also: Why Indonesians should write about Indonesia in English more often)
Someone who is passionate about traveling is basically the sort of person who prefers to give back to the community he or she visits. There are so many splendid ways to do so while you are on the road, such as donating blood, visiting hospitals or schools, educating, starting a program, building a home or volunteering.
You can change the way you approach traveling. You can decide that you are a travel writer. You can open people’s eyes and teach them how to empathize with others. Next time you go anywhere — say a vacation to Raja Ampat in Papua, a hiking trip to Aceh, or a quick business trip to Singapore — you may meet someone amazing and write a story about that person.
You may also think to yourself: “I am a bad writer.” Lavinia Spalding, author of Writing Away: A Creative Guide to Awakening the Journal-Writing Traveler (2009), wrote that she had read more than 600 travel essays in two years to find that just 65 were worth publishing. Many were written by women who had never published a single word before. An editor looks for great writing, great stories, great characters and, above all, great heart.
Everyone has a story and all good stories can touch people’s hearts. Start small. The next time you go to somewhere, take a journal. Write a story: start with four short paragraphs about someone you recently met. Then share it, email it to 10 of your closest friends, submit it to contests, magazines or newspapers, or post it on Facebook. It now has more users that the US has citizens.
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It has never been easier to write a story and to find an audience. What is becoming rare is the urge to make that happen, the urge to connect with others on our own journey, and to reflect upon the meaning of such connections.
People are becoming more disconnected nowadays. We spend so much time online, which is no way to foster real or lasting relationships. We must learn to connect to each other.
A travel writer is obligated to meet people, ask questions and pay attention. With that comes a heightened sense of awareness and observation. On top of that, you will gain a much richer experience. You will become an ambassador for your country, and people will view you not simply as an average tourist but as a curious, engaged, interested global citizen, or even a part of their family.
Traveling can teach us that the whole world is one big family. We are each other’s kin. You can take that lesson and teach others. You can share your stories and those who read them may begin to understand the commonalities of the citizens of the world. They may begin to reject prejudice and apathy.
There are 7 billion people in the world. Everyone has a story. So keep your eyes and ears open. Listen to their stories. And tell yours, too.
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The writer is a lecturer in cultural studies at Andalas University in Padang, West Sumatra.
