My journey as a storyteller probably began the minute I could talk. I am told that by second grade I was spinning tales at the dinner table that sometimes seemed never-ending. We had lovely neighbors living two floors up, Joe and Gloria. Joe loves to tell the story of how he could hear my dad through two floors, screaming the words, “Angie, Shut-up!” I could not be deterred however. If I had a story to tell, usually about my school day, it was going to come out, one way or another.
Many years of telling tales went by before I realized I was acting out a storyteller’s role. Fast forward some fifty plus years and I would find myself sharing about my adventures with my team at the office. Sometimes it was about a student’s family that moved my heart, sometimes it was about the weekend, but the stories were always emotionally charged.
When I was a few months away from retiring, one of my team members came into my office, closed the door, and sat down. She said to me in no uncertain terms, “You should put all your stories into a book.” She was my most ambitious co-worker and I felt I should at least take her advice to heart and think about it.
As many of you may know however, when you leave a stage, an era or a time in your life behind, there exists a need to move on and sometimes this means tucking all things related into a box … putting a lid on it … taping it down tight, metaphorically … and stashing it away. Am I painting a clear enough picture? So, this is what I did, and that was May of 2018.
On April 1, 2019, Giasera’s birthday, I went out to lunch with a friend from a networking group. Her specialty was coaching. If you were lost in your career and were seeking a new direction, she was the one to talk to. I was happily retired however, so this was just a lunch – right? We were talking about children, mine were grown and she was pregnant with her first; careers, mostly hers; the past and life in general. We were enjoying each other’s company when, out of the blue she said, “Angela, you need to consider telling your stories and in order to lend more weight to suchlike stories, you should put them in a book!” A bit dumbfounded by this outburst I looked across the table with squinted eyes and said, “Arianna, we hardly know each other, we’ve shared two lunches, where on earth did that advice come from?” The rest is a blur … she said something about hearing me tell several stories in the little time we’d spent together and how they had captured her attention! I said “HA!” – and then as if by magic I remembered what my friend and co-worker had said. They were both so adamant about their wishes for me. How was I so slow in getting the message – the fact that I had been enamored with telling stories most of my life!
Everything moved quickly from this moment forward. I shared my excitement with my hubby and anyone else who would listen and then, just like after the birth of a child, I needed a name for this adventure. Everything I do or have in life gets a name.
Perhaps by coincidence, (I don’t believe in coincidences) I had just ordered new personalized plates for my car which, after much consideration, would read GIASERA! A clever combination of my two granddaughters’ names – Gianna and Seraphina!! Had that been an epiphany?
Boom! Giasera Enterprises … Birthdate, April 1, 2019!
I will share one more magical ‘coincidence’ with you – several weeks later, after having coffee with a friend, I was standing in a parking lot staring at my new license plates and it suddenly occurred to me … Gia Sera in Italian means “It is Already Evening”. This is already the evening of my life’s journey’ and it has been, and continues to be, so much fun!