Academy of Creative Media, University of Hawaii

Our lives are narratives—we are the art of narrative, and we must understand, guard, and cultivate our story, as if we do not, we are subject to the narratives that others impose upon us. Those are the narratives of people who are more powerful, who control us through government or money or paperwork or emotions, who want us to be something other than who we are. If we do not stand up for our own story, we become the story of others who do not know, in any intimate way, what it means to be us.