The first story I put together was for a kindergarten assignment. A book called “My dog Spot.” It was a wonderful short story except for the fact that I indeed did not have a dog, let alone one named Spot. However, the idea making something feel real started that day, and would mostly lay dormant for years. Until 2014.
Remember that tweet I mentioned? Well the story goes that my sophomore (HS) English teacher assigned us an essay to write: create a narrative set during World War II. It was my kind of world. After the assignment, she praised how real my story felt, and told me that I should think about doing something with my writing abilities.
Later that night, I posted a tweet alluding to that very conversation. It just so happened that Bob Cooke who was the primary editor and broadcaster of a track & field news outlet in Florida saw my tweet, took a chance and reached out. He saw an up-and-coming runner who also had the potential be become and up-and-coming reporter.
In March 2014, I published my first article (about my high school team). By May, I did my first on-camera interview. You can find that HERE, though I do warn you, viewer discretion is advised.
Over the next few years I’d continue to grow as a journalist, continuing running and writing through college. But it was during my junior year where I began to shift towards more visual rather than written storytelling: the building blocks of the person you see today.
Then Covid happened.
And for a time, I was lost, as we all were. However, it was during the time that my love for visual storytelling blossomed. For months, there was nothing to do, no one to hang out with, so I reverted by to my childhood roots. I began to once again create and craft my own worlds; tell my own stories. Ultimately that’s what led me to weddings, collaborating with various organizations, and my overall interest of working within different industries and clients, starting my own business, but keeping the root of it all the same:
Storytelling.
Now that I’ve told you a bit of my story, I’d love to tell a bit of yours. Let me help you bring your visions to life. My story started with a tweet. How is your’s going to start?
Growing up in Florida and being not only the youngest of five, but the only boy definitely had it’s moments, but I believe it was those moments that allowed me to develop into the person I am today.
More times than none, I’d find myself creating and crafting worlds with my books, my action figures and my video games. When all of your sisters are watching Gilmore Girls (great show, by the way) and painting nails, I was left to my own imagination based on my inspirations which often came in the form of Dragon Ball Z and documentaries — specifically about the Second World War.
Those are my roots of becoming a visual storyteller.
Yep! You read that right! But we’ll come back to that part later.
