Abstract
In this article, the authors use autoethnographic sketches to explore storytelling across generations. Particular attention is devoted to storytelling as a coping mechanism across life’s many learning experiences. The authors hope this article aids other authors in collaborative autoethnographic writing in communication and related fields.
Personal Reflexive Statement
Recognizing the potential for collaboration as a tool to help construct the communication environment, this paper engages the positionalities, as student and professor, of the authors. The authors hope that this paper encourages communication researchers to examine how their position(s) impact their research endeavors.
Student
My grandmother sits with her sore knee propped up, a result of her lengthy journey, in her mint-colored cotton nightgown, on the living room couch, sipping coffee at 8 o’clock at night. Her wire glasses are pushed to the end of thin and pointed red nose, reading another one of her Nora Roberts tales. The last subtleties of the evening sunset float through the stained glass window which my great grandmother painted above Mama’s deep blonde, kinky, curly head. As I’m typing up a term paper, we sit in silence sharing an anticipatory emotional space. A question arises within me, and I ask myself internally first, simultaneously revolving my perspective to my grandmothers’ to feel the responsive nature my emotions embody. I think, “When you knew you would be raising another child, what things did you contemplate doing differently with me?” A deep desire to understand her regrets when raising my mother and how the sorrow she experienced after losing her only child shaped her reality and resulted in the mother she has been for me. The thought made my heart spasm and sink into my chest, and this would unveil a delicate scar from the past that needed to heal through acceptance, understanding, and forgiveness. I knew it was time. “Mama, what did you decide to do differently when raising me in comparison to my mother?” She slowly slides her glasses up to meet her thin brow and stars off into the room, sipping her coffee, and releases a cleansing exhale through pursed lips. “I promised myself that I would be completely open and honest with you about everything in life. When you had a question, I told you the truth, no matter what that meant.” A recollection of memories flash into my mind reflecting her words. Her explaining to me, a tiny little girl, my mother’s death in a car accident after having too much to drink on a date. I felt like an alien, I felt that everyone felt sorry for me, every time the story surfaced in conversation. Another memory of middle school with my girlfriends cuddled up on the living room floor, asking her questions about life, boys, and sex and her calm, careful, real answers—she was the only mom that would answer our deepest questions. I had Mama, but I longed to know my mother, I longed to know my father, where I came from, some sort of authentic root system not weathered down by decades past. Empathy begins to pour in, and an epiphany surfaces within my emotional body. Realizing that Mama is a sturdy tree whose leaves and fruit were unexpectedly ripped away forever. I am the rebirth of her leaves, and I am her nutrients above ground. A sensation of gratitude enters my body, nurturing the victim little girl living inside of my heart, longing for her mother and father and longing for a normal life. I look over at Mama who looks gently into my eyes, into my soul, into our future, and we smile.
Professor
This autoethnographic sketch (Rambo 2007) uses storytelling to emphasize how knowledge is passed across generations. My student’s grandmother taught her about life. As her professor, I feel an obligation to teach her what I can, too. As (one of) her mentor(s), I situate this work inside a broader autoethnographic dialogue (Sikes 2013). Our collaboration reveals storytelling as a coping mechanism (Gloviczki 2015), a means for learning, and a way to unearth intersecting realities.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.