I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what has sustained me throughout life, and the answer is simple – stories.
Since I was a child, losing myself in a story has been both a way to stretch my imagination as well as a coping mechanism. I’ve written fan fiction and bad poetry and essays and even a few novels, all carefully tucked away in folders – actual folders, covered in the writings and drawings of my angsty teenage self, or virtual ones.
I’ve chased stories all my life – I chased them through a BA and an MA in Literature, into a career as a data analyst (data is, after all, just another story), and now into a PhD specializing in Qualitative Research.
Even though I spend my days mired in stories, I still like to create my own. And I think it’s time I start letting them go out and live lives beyond the confines of my folders. I’ll be documenting those efforts, and much more – I do, after all, love to write.
leahkent.com 