I am leaving Manila again soon and one the things I'll surely miss is my late night dinner/coffee with my friend, Ella. Luckily, I came across with the wonderful StoryCorps mission, which is to honor and celebrate life through listening. Their work actually focuses on American stories but I thought it's a really good concept that we can easily do for a few minutes.
At StoryCorps, recording a story need not be in a form of sophisticated video production. Any form of recording medium will do. In our case, it was a simple mobile phone laid on the table. Just remember to do some simple preps. You also don't need a celebrity or a high profile person around. You can interview your grandparents, parents, neighbor, or any person who has a story that you believe needs to be preserved.
Here's my very casual interview with my friend, Ella, at a coffee shop by the highway. Pardon our very loud voices. We can barely hear each other because of the passing vehicles. I got too excited during the interview, I answered the questions, too. We're able to answer all the questions in the first 11 minutes. (The rest of the recording is just our extended chat. :)) With that short time, I wish you can imagine how fun it is to do this exercise with your own friends and family.
What is your first memory of me?
What is our most difficult time as friends?
What makes us such good friends?
Is there anything that you've always wanted to tell me but haven't?
What is our most difficult time as friends?
What makes us such good friends?
Is there anything that you've always wanted to tell me but haven't?
If you're stuck on what to ask, StoryCorps has a question generator that you can print out. I think I already played this conversation a hundred times in my laptop and I'll be playing it more when I'm away. In my hope to preserve our memories for the future, I was able to fill my needs of the present time to keep them always close to me.
