People have a hard time understanding my love of stories. “You love books?” they ask. Well, yes. I’ve always loved reading. But my love of stories has persisted into adulthood thanks to a key realization; stories connect people. Stories shine light on the universal things we all understand and break down the barriers that we think separate us. I want to hear a story I connect to, something that mirrors myself enough that I can recognize it in someone else.

Which brings me to my new love, radio. Radio is theater without a stage, reading without a page; after all, it’s stories that I crave. I believe oral storytelling really gets back to the roots of humanity - learning, loving, losing - within the safety of one’s psyche. This is different from other art forms because it allows the listener imaginative control, which is a huge part of being connected to it empathetically, as well as employing a human emotive sense-mechanism (sound). It strips away all of the layers of grandiosity and spectacle to leave us with the purist seedling of the artform.

My knowledge of audio, podcasting, editing, and storytelling has been growing over the last few years due to my sheer determination to learn. Though I have dabbled in various equipment use, editing software, and recording environments, it has been a self-led adventure. Last year, I started in the Sound Arts and Industries graduate program at Northwestern University. The plan is to graduate in the summer of 2021. Through my soon-to-be professional connections, I hope to gain experiences in all of these areas, and be introduced to the standards for the field.