The Power of Stories

by Alexis Lannoye

Today I went to visit a 22-year-old guy that told me his story about joining the Air Force. We interviewed him for a school project and we told him just to talk: to tell us everything he could about his life and his time in the Air Force. He was so worried that with no combat experience and only three years in the Air Force he wouldn’t have enough stories to share from his short 22 years of life. Once we got talking we found out this man was still full of stories, not of combat, but of basic training and everything he had to go through to get him to this point of sitting and talking with us today. Everyone has a story to tell and everyone's’ story is different, special, and unique to them.

In kindergarten, my teacher awarded me the honor of Ms. Storyteller of the class. While that may not be as representative of me now, I still love to listen to personal stories. My parents have some of the best stories, but they are very different. My mom was a social butterfly, but never got into trouble. My dad was a little daredevil. Some of my favorite stories from him are when he got hit by a Madison City bus when he was 12 years old walking home for the park, or when he filled a tennis ball with kerosene and set a bush on fire. He has told us stories of shooting fireworks at his brother in high school, which he feels bad for now. From college, one of my favorite stories is when he went rollerblading down one of the biggest hills in Houghton, Michigan—or at least, he slid down and showed up later that night to a movie date with my mom all bloody and scraped up. There are stories behind every ache and pain.

I don’t know if my story would be considered long or short compared to others my age. It starts off on Hazelnut Lane in Milton, Wisconsin. My dad worked for GM and my mom was a stay-at-home mom. My parents built their first house in a very new neighborhood. Everyone’s yard was a big open field, and I used to run through everyone's yard to play with my friends at the opposite side of the neighborhood. I remember when my little brother was born, going to swim lessons, and going downtown to the library with my mom to listen to story time. I loved living in Milton. We had a nice big yard, raspberry and strawberry bushes where we would go out with buckets and collect the berries. That was the house where I had my baby tree and my dad built my very first swing set. Eventually the GM plant in Janesville closed down, and they decided to move us to Ohio. I was just about to start 1st grade. I don’t remember meeting my best friends in Ohio, but somehow I met Olivia, Rocco, Brianna, Kiara, and Giovanni. They were my best friends. Olivia and I were the bestest friends, and we lived right down the road from each other. Olivia was a troublemaker. I remember one day we were riding home from school on the bus, and I had a fancy backpack that Olivia liked. It was like one of those messenger bags that were really popular and everyone had. Olivia had a plain normal backpack and was very jealous of mine. We decided it would be a good idea to get scissors and cut open Olivia's backpack so she would have to get a new one, and of course her new one would be just like mine. Then one day we went at it and when we got off the bus we came up with a brilliant excuse that Rocco’s dog got ahold of it. Turns out, Olivia’s mother didn’t really like that excuse, so for the rest of the school year Olivia had to show up to school with her broken, cut up backpack.

I moved to Wausau, Wisconsin in early 2009 and left the summer of 2018. In those nine years of my life I met some pretty amazing people. In January of 2nd grade, I moved back to Wisconsin where I met one of my best friends, Grace. We met because she and her other friend at the time got into a fight and I tried to help mediate. I’ve always liked helping people. I have always wanted to be that person for someone, and when I first arrived in second grade Grace and I just clicked. Moving back to Wisconsin feels like a lifetime ago and just yesterday all wrapped up into one when really it has been 10 years. Just an entire decade. Just a decade ago little did I know Grace would be in every single class of mine for the rest of my elementary career. We would go through really big ups and really big downs within that time, but to this day we are still the best of friends.

When my dad decided to quit his job (in Wausau) in search for better opportunities, I was really excited. I was up for something new and I wanted a new adventure. When it came time to touring new high schools for me we toured Deforest High School, Sun Prairie and Poynette. Deforest was very similar to my old school, Sun Prairie was huge and very intimidating and then there was Poynette. Poynette was very small and old. I had never experienced anything quite like it. It didn’t seem as impressive as anything else I toured, but Poynette was the most welcoming. I decided with this move would be a move of trying new things and experiencing new experiences. So I retired my evergreen sweatshirts and officially became a Puma. If I would have chosen to transfer to Deforest I will always wonder how different my life would be. Which is absolutely crazy to think about.

This year has been very different. The entire high school is made up of 330 people who all look and talk and think exactly the same. Or at least compared to my old school. For the first couple weeks I remember walking through the hallway and thinking how weird it was to not see a familiar face. I didn’t realize until I left how much I would miss all my best friends and how much they meant to me. I was so excited to move and try something new that I didn’t expect to truly miss them as much as I do. I definitely realize now how much I took all of them for granted and my move was so eye opening. Now I feel I am more in touch with my friends than I have ever been. The summer of 2018 was also when I got my driver’s license. Since that day in June I spent most of my summer driving back and forth between the little town of Arlington that I live in now to back to Wausau to visit all my friends. Since June of 2018 I made the trip back up to Wausau at least once a month. I still talk to my friends everyday and I believe my move has made us all closer than ever even though our distance is much much farther apart.

In one of my classes at Poynette High School, we had a discussion on an article we read. The author said you can move anywhere in the world in search of a new life, but you will always live with yourself. You can’t expect your life to change just by moving someplace new. If you want to change, you have to change your mindset or personality. Otherwise you will just be the same you as you were before, but living in a different place. One example they gave was if you are from a small town with no friends and bored all the time and decide to move to a big city in search of gaining more friends and more things to do. Most likely you will be just as lonely in the big city as you were in your small town, because you’ll only feel comfortable going out with friends. In this brand new city, you are still you with no friends. Something about this idea really resonated with me. Since moving to Poynette, I’ve met a lot of new people and learned a lot of new things. By moving to a small town, I never realized how much of a culture shock it would be. I’m thankful for all the places I have moved to because I think without those experiences I would be not as open minded.

For now, that has been my story. In my 16 years of life I feel so blessed to have the family I have, my friends and all the stories I can tell. Every story, long or short, helped create me into the person I am today. Everyone’s story is very different, no two people are exactly the same. Our world is full of a billion different stories, filled with so many different experiences that makes me, me and you, you.