How a 14-Year-Old’s Speech Captured the Art of Storytelling
By: Catherine Syme
Tags: Self-awareness, Life Lessons, Self Improvement, Self, Storytelling

This might sound a little cheesy, but the story was riveting coming from a 14-year-old girl who spoke in broken English, barely referring to her notes.

The content or message of Christie’s story was touching. The story was engaging and memorable — and although not extraordinary, in another sense, it was remarkable.

Firstly, it shows remarkable insight for a 14-year-old. You couldn’t accuse Christie of bullying, but she was teasing, and I imagine it didn’t make Nicole feel great. It is well known that bullies lack self-confidence. And Christie recognised that a lack of self-confidence was also behind her more light-hearted teasing.

At age 14, I could imagine reacting defensively to my mother, as Christie initially did. After all, the game wasn’t even Christie’s idea — it was Nicole’s mother’s idea! But I would not have moved beyond this to recognise a larger truth in the way that Christie did. Or if I had, I would not have admitted it!

Secondly, it showed that Christie understood the fundamentals of a good story. It was a simple, personal story, told well. Christie made herself vulnerable. And there was a life lesson for Christie that many of us could take on board.

Let’s look at each of these elements.

A simple personal story

Experiences are the material for stories. Older people have had more experience and more opportunity to process them. Yet Christie showed that even a small daily occurrence could be the basis for a story.

I still find it impressive that Christie recognised the value in her story. So many people think they have nothing important to say. Yet everyone has stories like Christie’s.

Being vulnerable

The story would not have been comfortable for Christie to share. I believe this incident had a big impact on her. She must have spent a lot of time thinking about it. And she was obviously upset about her mother’s reaction. She probably moved through several stages from “that was funny” to “that was harmless — just a bit of fun” to “perhaps I was not very nice.”

When we realise unpleasant truths about ourselves, it is one thing to change the behaviour. But rarely do we share our insights so that others can benefit.

A life lesson

My initial reaction was that her mother had been a little tough on Christie. It was just a game! Yet I could see Christie’s mother’s point. Light-hearted teasing is a step towards more serious bullying. Putting someone else down can make us feel good about ourselves at the expense of the other person. There was an important life lesson for Christie, but also her audience.

Christie could have emphasised the life lesson by directly articulating the connection between teasing and bullying. I am not sure that her classmates would have made that connection. It took me a while.

Her speech was also missing a call to action. She could have finished with something like, “Have you ever said something that made someone else feel bad? Even if you were only joking? Think about why you said it. Did it make you feel better about yourself? The next time you want to tease someone, try saying something nice instead. I bet that it will also make you feel better about yourself. And I bet the feeling will last longer.”

But Christie was only 14 years old. If she was able to tell this story at 14, I am excited to think about what she might achieve when she is older.