Live a Great Story!

I've become a Live a Great Story ambassador. Which basically means I'm part of a large (and rather brilliant) marketing campaign. Live a Great Story is a company started by Zach Horvath in 2012. Though I'm typically not a fan of "bandwagons" Zach's is one I'm happy to be on.

Zach's goal is for everyone to live life to the fullest. He encourages people to: "Step into your story" and states that "Stories are vital to humanity." (Click here to view his 2020 Ted Talk).

As a Live A Great Story ambassador, I've agreed to help spread the word, and I'm crazy excited to do so. His message has been on my vans for years, but as of January 2023, Nomadic Grandma has officially joined the #liveagreatstory movement.

After loosing my dad to suicide, (and enduring a lot of other trauma), I've tried endlessly to write my own story in a way that allows me to move forward. Suicide is such a strange and uncomfortable social construct. People are far more likely to whisper and speculate than they are to approach you. Even within families directly affected by suicide, people have different reactions. My sister, living and working in the same town, wanted no one to know. In fact, she'd initially planned to to tell her boys that their grandfather had died in his sleep. My mother, of course, also wanted us to tell no one.

Meanwhile, I wanted to scream it from the rooftop. My father, a highly successful, well-known professional, had spent years hiding his depression. As a doctor, he could have easily chosen an "invisible" way out (overdosed with any drug cocktail he wanted). My sister and I would know it was not an accident, but no autopsy would be preformed. And perhaps more importantly, my mother would be free to write whatever "loving" graceful exit story she wanted to write. Clearly, that was not what he chose. I believe my dad wanted his suffering - his true story to be known.

Yet, even within my own life, I carry two polar opposite dialogues. (Perhaps we all do, to some extent, but trauma survivors take it to a whole new level. ) The truth is, I have a pretty traumatic past that started long before my father's death. But that's not what I post on Instagram.

I believe that we need more space in our culture to tell our authentic stories. There is so much social emphasis on gratitude and joy, being positive, happy, etc. Anxiety, PTSD, and depression have become uncomfortable topics and are quickly medicated away. But as a result, we're losing the space to share our deepest human truths. And as Zach said our stories are vital to humanity.

So while I love the Live a Great Story message and am crazy excited to join Zach as an ambassador. My personal goal is to tell my real story: To share both the photos of joy, laughter and adventure, and the reality of being a trauma survivor. It is my hope, that my authentic story - everyone's authentic story, is by far the greatest story we can live.