It was a Big Day for boys from the village, who turned 12 that year. The boys went through the ceremony, after which they could be called men. They became eligible to go hunting with their fathers and older brothers, or defend their village in case of danger.

Not long before the Big Day, 12 years old left their homes early morning. They were expected to spend three days and three nights in the bush – alone, unarmed and barefoot, without food or water carried from home. Their task was to find and kill one land predator, one bird and catch a salmon.

Not all boys returned from the bush timely for the ceremony, and some of them would never come back home… Quite a few boys did not bring the proof of their successful hunting in the bush; they were not allowed to come to the ceremony.

At the Big Day just three boys, who had returned from the bush, stood in the center of the ceremonial glade, in front of the Elders. Boys’ parents and all other villagers surrounded the glade.

When time came, the first boy emptied his handbag. He demonstrated a wolf’s pad, duck’s wing and salmon’s tail. The Elders nodded in recognition of the boy’s achievements.

The second boy raised his hands with the lynx’s ear, goose foot and salmon’s head. Elders nodded again.

The third boy said that his bag is empty.

“Then you shouldn’t be here,” one of the Elders said.

The boy asked for a permission to explain, how he spent the last three days. The Elders nodded. The boy told, where and how he found a breeding ground for salmon, and that it was not hard to catch fish in that place. The boy told, how terrified he was, when he faced a grizzly bear when he was coming out of the water with fish in his hands. But the animal did not attack him. That was a very young bear, and he was hurt. Bear’s feet were all bloody and he could barely walk. The boy told that he could kill that bear and cut the claws for the proof, but he didn’t. He threw his salmon to the bear and walked away. The boy told how happy he was , when he turned around and saw the bear, lying on the ground and eating the boy’s gift. A pure thing wouldn’t be able to catch salmon in that condition, said the boy.

The boy told, that he found a place with many-many nests with the bobwhite quail’s eggs in it. He could wait for the birds to come back to their nests and catch them, but he didn’t. He wanted nestlings to have parents to look after them.

It was silent on and around the ceremonial glade. Some villagers smiled, some had tears in their eyes. The Elders nodded one after the other. The villagers quickened with excitement.

“Follow me,” one of the Elders said to the young man after the ceremony.

“What you did in the bush was right. We believe you. What you have told to us – isn’t right. You confronted the ceremony, which our ancestors followed for hundreds years. What should we do the next year, when other boys will have to go to the bush? What we will tell them after all? I wish you called that story back”.

But, of course, it was too late. For once a story is told, it cannot be called back. Once told, it is loose in the world (King, 10).

Reflection

I have never tried to make up oral stories. Even though I expected that creating a story would be more challenging for me, than writing a text for reading, I was surprised how difficult it turned to be. After reading aloud the first draft of the story to myself, I realized that everything should be changed in it – the style, the choice of words, the length of sentences and dialogues. I had to think, how the story would sound.

I am not a great speaker. When I do oral presentations, I usually read the most of the presentation from my notes on the paper. This is why another challenge for me was telling the story without the printed text.  However, I enjoyed my little storytelling experience. If I didn’t learn my story by heart, I would miss the magic of the storytelling, as I wouldn’t see and feel my audience, what’s their response, whether I managed to hook their attention.

One of the key points I took away from the first chapter in The Truth About Stories is that there are many different patterns of telling the same story (King, 2). We can also change the essence of the story, adapt it for a particular audience or situation. We can change stories, because we are changing too, and “the truth about stories is that that’s all we are” (2).

Works Cited

King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Peterbough: Anansi Press. 2003. Print.

Parrott, Charles. “On Telling Tales and The Art of Storytelling.” Storytelling, Self, Society, vol. 10, no. 2, 2014, pp. 258–262. JSTOR, Web. January 20 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/10.13110/storselfsoci.10.2.0258.

Peterson, Lani. “The Science Behind The Art Of Storytelling.” Harvard Business Publishing, Lani Peterson /Wp-Content/Uploads/2018/12/HBPubCorpLearn_wide_crimson.Svg, 17 Oct. 2018, Web. January 22 2020. www.harvardbusiness.org/the-science-behind-the-art-of-storytelling/.