“Implore that person to tell and tell and tell their story.” 

My sister finished her final project for her Reading Specialist Certification from the University of Virginia. She chose to create a teacher’s guide for Thanhha Lai’s powerful prose-poetry book, Inside Out and Back Again, (a semi-autobiographical book about Lai’s experience as a refugee from Vietnam in the 1970’s). I just ordered it! In the author’s note to the reader, Lai writes this:

I also hope after you finish this book that you sit close to someone you love and implore that person to tell and tell and tell their story. 

I think again about how loving and important it is to sit down with others and let them tell and tell and tell their story. What a gift! 

I think more about sharing stories in community as a vital activity. I want you to tell and tell and tell! 

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