Embracing the Vulnerabilities and Possibilities of Storytelling, Listening, and (Re)Creating Identity with Others

Abstract:This article illuminates how the stories that we tell and retell to understand ourselves, others, and our cultural positions are forever vulnerable to change. It traces a narrative researcher's experience conducting open-ended interviews with elders in the beginning stages of memory loss, through a combination of field notes, performance of personal narrative analysis, and autoethnography. In addition to grappling with her own inevitable physical vulnerability, three participants’ narratives challenged three familiar personal stories that she retells to make sense of my past, present, and future relationships. The article closes with a call to embrace the vulnerability of stories to change, leaving us forever open to new possibilities, connections, and understandings of what it means to be human with others.