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#049 — Story of the Month: Anna Nodolf’s Snow Day Story
Have you ever had a snow day? Or several snow days?
Or have a story about the greatest snowstorm that hit your area? Or heard the kind of snow stories where your parents walked a mile each way to school uphill in the snow?
Everyone has their own versions of snow stories, except, if maybe you’re in a place where it doesn’t snow at all, so you’re like “uh, no.”
I grew up in Michigan, so snow days are no stranger, but we moved south to Masse Mountain here in South Carolina, so they’re a rarity now. And, for the record, southern snow really is a little different than northern snow. It’s more wet + crunchy icy from what I’ve seen. But, this isn’t about me…
This month’s story from photographer Anna Nodolf goes beyond a snow day. The snow day is surface level stuff, but we like to look a little deeper, don’t we? This story is about how Anna’s daughter – an only child – experienced snow days this year.
For us, this story reminds us of how we look at our experiences or the experiences taking place around us for others. We can simmer on the surface level or we can look a little deeper.
Enjoy the story.
There’s no ONE way to run a business. There’s no ONE way to document. There’s no ONE way to experience life.
The thing is, sometimes our own experiences shape a firm perspective—tricking our minds into seeing only ONE way.
That’s the big takeaway here:
There’s no ONE way to experience a snow day. Only how you experience a snow day.
Anna sparked a few questions:
- How are they experiencing this story that’s different (or familiar) than your own perspective?
- How am I experiencing this that’s probably different (or familiar) to others?
- How am I experiencing this that’s different (or the same) than what my original expectation was?
- What’s unique about you (or who you’re documenting) that makes their experience what it is?
In today’s story, it was that Anna’s daughter is an old child.
Look closer at your stories…
Maybe it’s as simple as how your kid experiences doing homework. Or how your spouse shows up as a partner that’s a reflection of their upbringing.
Maybe it’s the story of WHY you live where you live…. How you experience your home that maybe others wouldn’t, but your unique perspective makes your experience different.
Masse Mountain has a whole story that you just don’t see / understand by looking on the surface of pictures around my house!
How can you take the stories you’re documenting a little deeper?
More Goodness:
- Anna’s Full Story on the F&F Journal
- The Preservation Project
- Freesources for Storytelling Photographers
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