Thursday Nights
Gaspard C.
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When I was 11 years old, I was told a story that would someday help me through one of the most challenging times of my life, nearly a decade later. For a class project, my teacher instructed me to make a poster about the “hero’s journey”. I had to find someone in my family with a unique story, then create a poster explaining each step of their heroic journey. Naturally, I chose to do my project on Nana, my grandmother.
My parents had mentioned the fact that she was a survivor of breast cancer, but apart from a couple of passing comments, I knew nothing about that era of her life. I set out to conduct some research on the topic, and scheduled a phone call with her. Although Nana and I had always been close, up to this point, we’d never had this serious a conversation. However, in only a 30-minute phone call, I became closer to her than I’d been my entire life.
I learned that while preparing for a hiking trip to Mont Blanc, she developed a sharp pain in her left breast. Little did she know, this pain was cancer. With time, this physical pain transformed into an emotional one. I recall her telling me that because of both her physical suffering, caused by the tumor, and her psychological suffering, caused by her fear of death, she developed a new illness: depression. In this miserable state, it was impossible for her to find motivation and strength to persevere. Impossible, until my parents told her that they were expecting a new addition to our family – me! This gave her a new motivation to fight her cancer. She wanted to see me grow, and be part of my life. With an abundance of surgeries, time, and support from her loved ones, Nana found her way out of both depression, and ultimately cancer.
After hearing this story, I saw Nana as a true hero. Her strength and resilience inspired me. However, her story was not something I could relate to. I was proud of her, but as an 11-year-old boy, there was no part in my life that resembled what Nana had gone through. Putting the poster together made me feel close to her as a person. However, in no way did it make me feel close to her story.
As the years went by, the poster’s bright pink background faded to white. As the poster got older and changed with time, so did I. The way I understood her story evolved. Thinking about it now, her story doesn't feel as distant as it once did. Today, I find myself at an intersection point of my life. My childhood has faded away, and the frightening cycle of adulthood slowly creeps towards me. Living in this liminal space leaves me anxious, as my future is extremely uncertain. I don’t know where I will end up living for the next 4 years, or what I will dedicate my life to. Although it is less severe, the uncertainty of my future is relatable to the uncertainty Nana had to face. Through her story, I now understand that the future does not only hold negative experiences. Even though she was faced with death, the future granted her hope, and ultimately, life. Although our stories are extremely different, her story reassures me about what my unknown future has to unfold to me.
That’s what I believe the true value of telling a story is – the power to affect people’s lives for the better. No matter what comes after it, the story will always stay the same. Therefore, a story can affect someone's life differently, depending on what point in their life a person considers the story. When Nana first told me her tale, it didn’t hold relatable significance, but now, it gives me hope and confidence towards my uncertain future. All stories contain universal themes that we humans endure. Therefore, one single story can relate to, and help people who come from many different experiences and backgrounds.
During my freshman year of high school, in my film class elective, I came to understand the power of telling a story through film. The mass distribution of films gives artists the opportunity to affect millions of viewers by telling stories people can relate to, and therefore, learn from. Kind of like what my grandmother did to me. By helping me through these uncertain times and telling me her story, Nana inspired me to hold steady in the face of fear. Leading people to finding security through both the aesthetic, and content of my films is what drives my passion to this art craft. As a filmmaker, I aspire to be like my grandma. One that brings light in moments of darkness.
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Throughout my life, I've always been involved in different environments. I'm an ice hockey player, skateboarder, actor for my school theater program, and an IB student. Growing up in these various worlds has given me an honest vision of the world, that I am able to express through filmmaking.
