Out of Darkness

How do you live when the world won't stop speaking?

This is the story of Kimberly. Unfortunately, hers is a story we hear all too often. She, like many teenagers her age, and a growing number of adults as well, suffers from insomnia and chronic depression. This is a difficult place to climb out of because each condition perpetuates the other.

"...I try my hardest to live with it. But when everything in your head is screaming, you can't sleep, and nothing makes sense. Living is sometimes your biggest problem."

Kimberly delivers this story in the first person. Although, her narration sounds very unrehearsed, which, would normally indicate authenticity--now sounds almost as if its being told in the third person. She stumbles throughout the text and doesn't sound at all emotionally attached to the story. On second thought, she may not be telling her own story.

This digital clip captures a dark moment in Kim's life that she would probably rather forget. Never mind the date and time, the town, the people around her or the color of her shoes--her experience can be wrapped up in one/two word(s): High School. Or, to be even more cruel: Senior Year. With those simple words put together, we needn't even watch the video to have a good understanding of what her story entails. Her story is about all of us; anyone who attended high school knows the bittersweet taste of that special slice of purgatory between adolescence and adulthood. For some, it is a mere bee sting that disappears in relatively no time at all. Others are doomed to play the role of Atlas (from underneath the stage) for forty years.

"Your body aches...Nothing in the world fits into that perfect puzzle you thought surrounded you."

So how does the digital medium change her story? Well for one, it is told in her own words, dubbed over a slideshow containing pictures of herself and other images to enhance the narrative. As opposed to traditional stories, which would either be spoken by word of mouth, or read in black and white text, this leaves less room to the imagination. It does however, make up for it in connectivity. This means that in some way or another, we can interact within her story-reality. Because it is in video format, not only can we can manipulate when we want to hear her speak and how loud we want to hear the story, we could even look at it without sound. We could blow it up, shrink it, pause it, copy it, send it, edit it, etc. But we could even take it one step further...

It is true that the universe is made up of stories--that everyone has a story and that they are all interconnected and overlapping. From the moment I watch her video and listen to her story, it becomes a part of mine; a connection has been made. Just as you are reading this post, it will either be brushed aside as a minor detail, or could be the catalyst in a new chapter. To take it further, I can respond, reach back, whether in past or in the present, to connect with her personally--to join the two subplots together. To demonstrate this, I have asked to be her friend on facebook. Now I've written the author a letter. Not a literal letter or message, but simply an invitation, which depending on how she interprets it or decides to react, contains a story all within itself. That digital invite, just like this post, will either be a minor detail or a major catalyst.

The future (of our story-reality) is unwritten.