Reporter’s Notebook | Storytelling, a form of perseverance
Before I begin, this will be a short piece (compared to my long stories I’ve written thus far for Navajo Times). I am allowing some room for my own perspective.
While being with the Times for a while and listening to many stories from various people, I reflect on the experience. Whether it be conversations or thoughts.
One conversation I recall was about purpose and passion.
While I sit here writing this and reflect on purpose and passion and welcome a new year, I cannot help but think of my late father, Derrick Joe, Sr. who passed away at the age of 23 on January 1, 1993, by a drunk driver.
When he passed, I was four months old. I was never given a chance to remember him vividly. I hear stories from his side of the family and my mom’s side of the family. Sometimes, I wish I had stories of my own that I was able to share with my friends and my partner.
My dad was in radio communications with the U.S. Marine Corps, and I believe he implanted his skills and knowledge onto me to share his story, or at least, share my story of him from stories I’ve heard from family.
Either way, my purpose and passion evolve around the idea of storytelling.
For many years, I’ve been asked, “How did you become a writer? Why do you enjoy it?”
My answer always reflects thinking of my dad because he was also a writer too. He wrote many, many letters to my mom while he was in bootcamp in San Diego, California, on tour in Okinawa, Japan, and stationed in North Carolina.
In a way, whenever I read those letters, I am learning about him from his own words. The beauty of writing is whenever you leave the physical world and enter the spirit world, your stories are left behind.
As I make my way with the Times, I’ve connected with many people and have heard their stories of their purpose and passion, and I thank them for sharing their story with me because it allows them to be heard. It allows them to reflect and think that their life is not meaningless and there is a reason for it.
I recently wrote a story about a good friend and his small business, and his response of it was I took care of his story, and he allowed his vulnerability to be told. I share that not to boast my writing, but to share that I listen and observe.
It is also why I am a poet. The rule breakers of everything when it comes to language and form, but the attention to detail in words, motion, and movement.
As I continue with the Times, I continue to be a storyteller. Not a fire starter, not jiní news, like many portray reporters as (another stigma to get away from). But that is also the beauty of being a writer. It’s being opened to critiques, feedback, suggestions, and if you cannot handle any of that in general, there’s no room for improvement or growth.
I believe that is what the Nation needs, growth and improvement. If it’s not with certain things, it can be with writing and storytelling. And I believe Diné writers are doing just that.
If you don’t know, the Nation has many Diné authors that have written and published many books of various genres. We are even teaching these genres in schools across the U.S. and utilizing the English language to fine tune it from a Diné/Indigenous perspective. We are finally writing our own books, movies, and telling our own stories from real Indigenous people.
So, as we welcome the new year together, and you continue to read the Times, remember that you have a story to tell too, and you have a purpose.
Thank you for reading my stories and allowing space for me to be in a place like the Times, the Diné Nation’s very own newspaper.
My purpose and passion are here, a storyteller.
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