Alec Couros records a short personal video for the DS106 digital storytelling course (#DS106 Assignment One) in which he recounts a family trip to Oahu, Hawaii, focusing on a meaningful moment snorkeling with his six-year-old daughter at Hanauma Bay. He contrasts that clear, connected experience with his current snowy context in Regina and reflects on "living life in seconds" and the importance of contrast and context in stories. The video also references peers (Jim Groom, Steve Dembo, D'Arcy Norman, Ben Gray) and encourages classmates to tell their own stories.
Chapters
Hey everybody, this is Alec Kouros and I'm in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. And I'm here to tell you a quick story. This is in response to Jim Groom's project, his digital storytelling course that goes by DS106 on the net. And it's also a bit of a response to Steve Dembo's Fitness Fit 42 challenge, which, if you can tell by my breathing, really need that particular challenge. But here I'm going to tell you a quick story. Obviously it's a bit cold out here, but a week ago today I was actually in a much nicer climate. I was in Hawaii on Oahu. And what was really nice about that, I spent some time with family the first day I was there, the first time we hit the beach, I posted some of my photographs to Flickr. D' Arcy Norman has been to Hawaii at least a couple of times, I think, and he noted where we were, he could identify by the beach, where we were and so on. And gave me some advice in the comments on Flickr to check out Hanauma Bay. Sorry if I said that wrong, but it was a beautiful place. I took up Darcy's advice and we went out there as a family, I think three or four times. First day, went there, tried to get my six year old girl to snorkel with me. She didn't want to try. She was a little bit worried, so tried to kind of convince her over the time. But exactly a week ago today, she decided that she wanted to give it a shot. She just, oh, she just kind of gained the courage to try it. Grabbed my hand and asked me to go snorkeling with her and it was really, really kind of cool. As we walked out, put on our gear, kind of tightened everything up and it was just, you know, we were just floating over the reef looking at the fish. Absolutely amazing. It was just a beautiful clear day, clear under the water. And while we're floating, you know, I'm holding my precious girl's little hand and you could just hear her excitement. It was really kind of neat when you think about connecting in a different way. I talk about connecting all the time, connecting online and PLNs and all that sort of stuff. But this is a different type of connection which I think is really quite important. You could just hear her, you know, her excitement muffled under the water through her mask, which was just quite amazing to me. So an amazing story for me. Sometimes stories are better experienced and not quite as good told by someone else outside of the context. But I think many of you can relate to that kind of story with loved ones. For instance, that reminded me a little bit about. Ben Gray, actually just responded to this story as well, to the storytelling assignment. And he talked about living life in seconds. And that. That is something that's been really important to me for a long time, is this whole idea of living life in seconds. One of my favorite quotes from back in the day was from getting into deep snow here from a guy by the name of Cesare Pavese. I think that's how you say it. And I think it was something like, we do not remember days. We remember moments. There's more to that as well. But that's been something really important to me. And so you know that that part of it is really important in terms of what you learn from an experience like that. But the other part is also. That's quite important in this respect, is this whole idea of contrast. And that's one of the reasons I'm out here. I think context has everything to do with the story, is how much we actually learn when we look at context. Sorry, contrast. We kind of experience life and death and climate and health and a lot of things in contrast, a lot of things that are most important. And I just think we have to continually think that way, how much we learn from the contrasting experiences in my life. And I believe right now I'm pretty much stuck in the snow, so I'm gonna have to end my story. But anyway, that wasn't real poignant or anything, but I thought I'd share my brief story about Hawaii, my life in Saskatchewan here. And I hope others do take on the challenge to tell their stories in whatever way they like for this class, which will be really exciting as it goes on. Thanks, everyone. See you. Bye.
