simple daily observations

Reed Sandridge faced being layed off by creating a fun project to do. He calls it the “Year of Giving” and does this to occupy him in his spare time while looking for a job.

Every day, Sandridge approaches a stranger on the street and offers them $10 to tell him their life story. So far he has given close to $1,200 away. After hearing their life story & interviewing them, Sandridge posts their story to his blog. So far he has done this for 116 days.

I thought this article was very interesting because it reminded me of a guest speaker I had in one of my History classes last semester. A new type of history that is taking place these days is recorded stories. One of the professors in the History department here at Baylor is involved in this new area of History. His research consists of going to visit people from different eras such as the civil rights era or WWII and recording their story on a tape recorder. I found this to be extremely interesting because this way you are hearing the story raw. At its basics. From the point of view of the person involved, without beint tampered with. When stories are written, a writer chooses what to include about a story in order to make the article “flow” the best. By doing so, the story is tampered - and looses its impact in a way. Through this new type of history, the subject has the ability to tell their story as they saw it. Putting emphasis where they see fit. And having their story unaltered. He played a few samples for our class when he visited and I was surprised by how much the actual voice impacted the story. I’m excited about this new type of history because I think it will be very cool for future generations to have the opportunity to hear stories from the past from mouths that were there to experience it.

I really think that what Sandridge is doing is cool. If I had money to just give away, I think I would do the same. There is nothing cooler than hearing the life stories of people – it’s cool when those people are your best friends, but how much cooler would it be if they were simply strangers? Maybe thats what I’ll do when I graduate. It beats looking for a job!