Are You Telling Your Story?

When it comes to getting people's attention, more and more I read that the story matters. And it's true.

I admit that I'm one of those skeptics - I'm slow to donate money, because I hear all kinds of horrible stories about where that money might actually go. I hate being lied to and I'd rather give that money to my cousin, who's a single mom, or someone else I personally know in need.

However, I've surprised myself by donating twice through PayPal on the internet, once for an abused woman working to escape her husband, and again for a fellow college student who needed to get home. I knew neither of these people, in fact, that college student is across the country from me, and I happened to meet her on Twitter.

It is these people's stories that moved me to go beyond my usual habits and help someone I didn't know directly. I know how important stories are, but I always feel like I can't see the story. If I were to take something like, say myself, and give myself a story, how do I construct that?

Now that I read his article, it sounds so simple. Jason Falls wrote here about not only the importance of stories, but the fact that they are everywhere, and I gotta say that the way he puts it makes it feel less intimidating to me. One example he uses is Skype, a web-based communication service. Now, saying that Skype is "a web-based communication service" is boring. But if I tell you that Skype helped my German exchange student friends keep in touch with their friends and family back home for cheap while they were studying here at UC Riverside, suddenly Skype has more emotional value.

So what's my story?

Sherelle is a student and blogger who became interested in social media after using personal finance blogs to feed her love of reading and keep her credit card debt down. After pushing her way into a MBA Internet Marketing class as an undergraduate, she now blogs about her explorations into the web and what the web can do. As a student, the going is slow, but thanks to those personal finance blogs, her credit card debt is down by 30%, and she stopped using those cards for good.

Hmm, do you think the specifics of my (now not so large) debt is too much? I thought I'd stick it in there as a point of pride. Let me know in the comments.