Credit: Tris Hussey

The words of my PhD advisor (whom I respect quite a lot, and with whom I am very much in touch even after having completed my PhD) have been resonating in my head for the past few days… “Remember, Raul – research is about telling a story with the data you have, the insights you have gained from your research, and communicating it in a clear way to your audience”. This past week and also this weekend, I’ve been contemplating the idea of storytelling as a method and embracing my inner storyteller.

Yesterday, on our way to the WaterDrop event where I spoke at, I shared a few stories about how I came about doing a PhD in environmental studies, where I studied my MBA courses, which countries I’ve lived in, etc. I also shared the story of how I started blogging and where it has taken me. As I was sharing my stories, I thought of the advice given to my by my advisor, the words of my dear friend Erica Hargreave (with whom I shared this morning a lovely breakfast and a walk along the seawall), the musings of my dear friend and neighbour DMcN (who is able to bend the English language to her very whim at will), as well as the powerful insights I’ve gained from my brother HZ (who, like me, is a scholar who is very engaged with the community at large): we are all telling stories.

My PhD advisor always told me that one key element to my success in academia, and to write excellent academic papers, books, thesis, journal articles, was to be able to find one key insight, and tell the story around it. Despite this fact, I never thought of myself as a storyteller. I always thought that I was an academic, a scholar, someone who was supposed to report back on facts, findings and issues. In the past week, however, I’ve come full circle. I’ve come to embrace my inner storyteller. I realize that with my blog, I am sharing not only the pathway of my evolutionary development as a human being, an academic, a scholar, a consultant, but also my very own personal journey through life.

Credit: Tris Hussey

Furthermore, and while we are on the topic of storytelling, I was particularly amazed by the fantastic work that April, Peter, Tris, Marina, Dan, Rebecca and all of my peers did at Women in Film 2009 Bridging Media Day. I think that the wonderful and major effort that Erica put to bring a team of social media specialists of the caliber that were in the room and the panels really paid out well, because we (the social media panel and the social media team) were able to tell a new story: the story of how traditional and mainstream media can create bridges and embrace new media. I think we were very, very successful in doing exactly that.

I am quite disappointed that I missed James Chutter‘s talks both at Orality 2.0 and at Northern Voice ’09 on storytelling, because I think that I would have learned a lot from James. Lucky for me, my dear friend Rebecca captured his NV’09 talk here. I’ll have to say that I’ve learned a lot from everyone who has been sharing their stories with me through their blogs, Twitter, and other platforms, through our continued interactions. I am also hopeful that Mental Health Camp will help people afflicted with mental illness tell their stories in a manner that makes them feel safe, comfortable and protected.

I have also come to embrace the power of telling stories through a variety of media and platforms, and through both my research eyes (see my research blog) and my personal lenses. I do hope that in sharing these stories, the people who read both my blogs can find some insights into their own personal learning journeys. If that is my contribution to the development and growth of our community, I will feel extremely successful.

My name is Raul, and this is my story.

Related posts:

1. On writing, storytelling and my academic work
2. Industrial and urban transformation, land use changes and storytelling
3. Embracing my duality

I started reading blogs because my friends used them to keep me up to date on what was going on in my life. I started blogging first because my brother did it. I blog because I love writing. I still do like my academic work, and I am passionate about environmental issues, about research, and about teaching. However, I also love social media and the new word that has opened to me. From new friends to attending events to getting swag to simply being recognized (someone recognized me at the Car Free Festival on Main Street – “OH, so YOU are Hummingbird604! I do read your blog“). Quite endearing, really.

But the truth of the matter is that, beyond that, I may seem like a blogaholic but I have never done things any other way. If I am going to take something on, I do it to the fullest. When I learned to play volleyball, I became passionate about it and tried to get as good and competitive as possible. When I learned to dance, I immersed myself in the salsa culture and danced until my feet hurt. When my father said that I needed to find out what exactly made me happy I embarked in a test-drive of many different careers. That has been both my philosophy and my way of going about things. DO THINGS TO THE MAX.

I thought to myself…”well, if I am going to be in the social media , I am going to learn how to do my own HTML tags. I want to be able to modify my own CSS. I want to learn how to increase my Google Page Rank, understand SEO, and more than anything, be able to use social media and the technology to bridge the chasm between audience and data source… As a researcher, I want to be able to understand the why. As a blogger interested in social media, I want to understand the the how.

I have found that when a topic touches an issue that I am interested in, I research and read about it obsessively. The Sarah Lacy/Mark Zuckerberg interview fiasco. The Emily Gould – Gawker blogging debacle. The whole issue with AP and charging for quotations. Bill C-61 and the lack of transparency of governmental policy decisions. The list goes on, and on, and on. It’s almost 2 AM on a Saturday night (when normal people are either asleep or getting home from the bar) and I am at my office working, and blogging.

So the questions that are currently on my mind are … what is it that drives people to be workaholics (or blogaholics – or in my case, both)? What drives your inner competitive spirit? And what kind of trade-offs do we need to take into account before we dive in head on? I’d like to hear your thoughts.

[UPDATE - Having published the post, I almost forgot to mention that my friends Ianiv and Arieanna own the Blogaholics.ca domain - go check it out!]

Related posts:

1. Being a workaholic AND a blogaholic…
2. Congratulations to Ianiv and Arieanna! Anniversary and a new little Blogaholic coming! :)
3. To Tumblr or not to Tumblr? That is the question…