An Open Letter to Ricardo: Zoom in on a Story

Photo by Phil Hilfiker [CC by-nc-nd]

Which photograph is better: One of the man or one of 3 million people?

The answer lies perhaps in who is looking at the photograph and also in the purpose of the photograph. The same factors would help determine the answer to your question: Why write a personal story?

Perhaps another important question is, should the skill of personal narrative be taught to agricultural engineering students? Should you be able to articulate a passion, a problem, a situation? Or is it all science and analysis?

If an employer already knows you can do the job, another critical answer you must provide is in response to this: Why do you want to do this job? Why do you care?

The employer wants to know if you've got anything inside you other than the some skills and a desire to collect a paycheck. He or she may want to know that what you've learned besides numbers, formulas, systems, and names of plants is held together by a belief in something more than money. Are you more a collection of cells that processes equations, senses the outter world and processes it, eats, drinks, defecates, and dances to music? A consumer. You're much more: Let's go there. Not just cells, but stories we think about, cry about, laugh about, are inspired by.

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The power of story is unmatched as a learning tool, a tool to convince, a tool to inspire, even entertain! Personal story, especially. But sure other kinds of stories too. We are biologically programmed to receive story too. Trace it back to mankind gathered around fires and gnawing on bones in caves, we were painting stories on cave walls and sharing what happened on the way to the river. Watch commercials: So many tell stories now. Tight, short stories so readers will remember and take action. Your stories, I think, will do something even more important. They can raise the level of awareness and passion for similar ideals and values. Take a close picture or two so this can happen.
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When you are talking in the cafeteria today or walking to class, people are telling stories. People love them. I'm asking you to write something that honors your identity and your purpose. I don't know what that is unless you tell me. I do know when you are still searching for it, when you are shying away from it. That's when I push. That's when you resist. When you find it, we all win: audience and you.