EPILOGUE

JENNIFER RUDOLPH WALSH

MAYA ANGELOU’S WORDS WERE MY first introduction to the transformational power of storytelling. Though I belonged to a different generation and race, hadn’t grown up impoverished or in the South, and hadn’t spent years mute (in fact, I couldn’t stop talking), it still felt to me that Maya Angelou was somehow telling my story—a young woman’s longing to be seen and heard. To believe that despite her pain, she was still worthy of love and her life mattered.

As she wrote in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” This simple, powerful truth unites all the stories in this collection, from Nkosi Mabaso’s resilience after trauma and Austin Channing Brown’s deep-seated fear of ambition to Cameron Esposito’s lonely path toward belonging and Jillian Mercado’s refusal to be treated with anything less than respect. Each one of these fierce storytellers creates a beautiful mosaic of lived experiences. Despite our differences, we can find part of ourselves in each. Most importantly, we need both sides of storytelling—listening to others’ stories and telling our own—to embrace one another in our full humanity. In bearing witness, we allow ourselves to be witnessed. This is the life-changing power of storytelling—to connect those of us who will never meet or have just met, as well as to deepen our connections to the people we love the most. Listen with an open heart and without judgment to what others have to share, and take courage from these pages as you go out and tell the world your truth. Magic is waiting for you.