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Every person is different, just as everyone has different routines, different opinions, and different states of mind. Something else that everyone possesses is a different story. The paths of life taken, and the mistakes made help define who each individual is. In the book //__A Whole New Mind__// by Daniel Pink, he talks about many senses, from Empathy to Symphony, and the one most important is Story. Story has many different qualities, and many different uses, but most of all it is the number one tool for individuality. From a mother telling a [|fairy tale](Youtube), to ancient Native American Tribes passing on legends and traditions, story has always been there and always will be. Whether describing a life story or writing a novel of one's own, story is a unchanging constant. Story has many different meanings, but yet always adds up to the same exact thing. What is story, how do people use it today, and why is story even important?

[|Story](Dictionary), that one small word, sets off a chain reaction in the mind. A verb, a noun, an adjective, story is a mystery to many people. Story, the dictionary had many different meanings including, “a lie or fabrication” and “a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader”; but it also had, “a report or account of a matter”. Many think of story as something read in a book, or a legend; however, stories show so much more than those fictitious [|tales](Ivyjoy). Currently, on planet Earth there are over 6,818,100,000 stories. What makes up all those stories are the people. Every person is their own unique story, made up of stories and experiences. Stories connect people, help them relate to each other and even remember events and information. Daniel Pink thinks that, "We are each the authors of our own lives"(Pink). Stories are a way for people to understand concepts that would otherwise have confused them. There are stories everywhere. Behind every picture is a story, different to every person who sees it. Behind every [|expression](Google) is a story, special to only a few people. Every accomplishment has a story behind it, shaping it and guiding it. As every person is different, the way they perceive each story is different. Every story changes as it passes from person to person. Stories shape who people are and who they want to be, where a person is are and where they want to go. Stories are part of that innate difference that makes people human. From the beginning of time story has played an important role in shaping the world, but in present day the meaning of story has changed. Story was once only symbolized in folk stories, mythology, and legends that taught its listeners how to live life. Today, in the 21th century, it seems as if story is now represented by songs, movies, pictures, and typical advertisement stories. So, now this “new” way of telling stories is not about how to live life, but how to live it with others. One of the most popular ways of telling a story is through song. On average about twenty-five hundred songs are produced every year in the United States and United Kingdom. Each individual song tells a story of happiness, sorrow(Youtube), anger, humor, and love. With song artists can experience feelings by telling a story, just with music added to it. The film industry is as equally diverse and popular as the music industry. Whether the movie is true or fiction, it tells a story. Stories of struggle, joy, love and sorrow; and typically have a main plot behind the visual interpretation. Another visual interpretation of story is through picture. The saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” creates a question. What if those thousand words were worth a picture, or if a story were worth thousands(Youtube) of pictures? Then that picture creates more words and more stories. So, it would seem as if pictures have the greatest effect on the world. The reason pictures are so popular is because they capture the moment of some of the greatest memories. “ Words and pictures can work together to communicate more powerfully than either alone ” (Think) Aside from pictures, songs, and movies another way story is used in today’s society is through advertisement. From Vitamin Water to Florida Orange Juice, story has developed as a technique for advertising. It’s the idea that by adding a personal, background story to the side of the product lures customers to buy that product. Whether it’s through music, film, pictures or ads story has a meaning in the way it is used today. Story grows through time teaching people how to live life with others, and how to learn to listen to people's more personal(Storycorps) sides.

We chose to research and listen to stories because life is a story, because stories help people put together all the little pieces, like assembling a [|puzzle](Youtube). Life is a story; it is a million little stories. It is the little stories that make someone laugh and the stories that they may have forgotten, like cracks between the pieces. Stories help people learn and grow,(Youtube) they pass down experiences and traditions. Stories are a needed part of life. They are a needed part of every culture, even though, in the information age, people didn’t seem to realize that. People were more into spitting out facts than understanding where they came from. This still seems to be true today, for passing a class you do not need to know why or how – but just //what.// But, what many teachers are now realizing, is that if you give the student a story to go with the what, then everything else could fall into place a lot easier. If the student came up with an acronym for converting metric units(Purplemath), a sentence that was easier to remember than just the facts, this seems help them remember the order of these conversions. One may say, well, who cares? But yes, the simple fact is, story is important. Story is how one communicates and grows close with those around them. When one tells a story, they are including that other person in their life, helping that person understand how they saw the big picture. As Daniel Pink says in A Whole New Mind, "We compress years of experience, thought, and emotion, into a few compact narratives that we convey to others and tell to ourselves." (Pink) Stories help people to have a deeper meaning of themselves. Story is also a way to remember facts, events, traditions. Native Americans weaved stories that passed down their valuable traditions from generation to generation. Now, the elders told these stories and the children sat at their feet and absorbed the words like a sponge – something that wouldn’t happen if it were just facts spit at them. These stories told of their pasts but it also described things that were important to their culture, such as honor and pride or the buffalo that roamed their homeland. Stories described landmarks and how to find them; the trail was traveled for centuries. Cave drawings(Google) were that exactly, a set of pictures scratched into stone that added up to tell a story. Story was a way to record what was important before there was paper or the written word. Stories are one thing that no matter what language you speak, stay unchanged.

Story is a moment captured in time, through pictures or songs. Story is the words behind the person no one has ever spoken a word to. Story keeps cultures alive. Story is the own individual way of life. Story can be crafted, like a lie, or retold beautifully, like legends passed on by ancestors. In Daniel Pink's book, story was retold as a sense, showing journey, and growth. From any way it's looked at, story was the most important to this group. All children can remember their grandparents telling them stories from a better day. Stories tell of triumph, and of great error. Stories tell all needed to have a successful life. Stories can be the 'how not to do it book'. Most of all, story, and all the little stories added together, makes a person who they are. Story molds you, and you mold the world.

Works Cited:

Dictionary.com. Define Story at Dictionary.com. 12 May 2010. []

Ivyjoy.com. Fables and Fairy Tales. 12 May 2010. []

Labnol.org. 12 May 2010. []

Pink, Daniel H. "Story." //A Whole New Mind: Why Right-brainers Will Rule the Future//. New York: Riverhead, 2006. 100-28. Print.

Purplemath.com. Metric Units & Converting Between Them. 13 May 2010. []

Storycorps.com. Story. 12 May 2010. []

Thinkexist.com. Pictures Quotes. 4 May 2010. []

Thinkexist.com. Word Quotes. 5 May 2010. []

Youtube.com. Ella Enchanted Trailer. 13 May 2010. []

Youtube.com. Ever Ever After-Ella Enchanted. 13 May 2010. []

Youtube.com. The Pen Story. 4 May 2010. []

Youtube.com. 6 Year Old Kid Solves Rubiks Cube in 37 Seconds. 12 May 2010. []

Youtube.com. The Beatles. 5 May 2010. []