This Academy Is a Masterpiece

When Corey asked me to cocreate a storytelling course for a client, I should have known the adventure would not be easy, nor would it be quick. I should have known when I said yes—and crossed the threshold into the creation process—that the vision would go beyond the horizon. It wouldn’t just be one course and it wouldn’t just take a few months to build.

It would take more than two years, and from it would come challenges and choices that would redefine who I was and who I wanted to be.

But back in the autumnal months of 2020, I said yes to this beautiful project without much thought to the future. The project seemed exciting and I found myself curious. The structure of the course would borrow from Joseph Campbell’s concept of the hero’s journey, which mapped the storytelling structure of various ancient myths and came to the conclusion that great stories have several elements common to them, from the hero, to the mentor, to overcoming the ordeal, to accepting the reward. I had studied this structure before and enjoyed all of the novels and films that borrowed from it. But I had no idea that the course would be more than just a writing course, more than just a storytelling course.

I had no idea that while I was conducting interviews with Corey—and we were talking about his childhood and his relationship to feeling special and his fear of feeling invisible—we were excavating a clear path for people to uncover their purpose and shine light on the unique gifts they possess in service to bettering the world.

I had no idea while I was crafting the reading materials and writing the journal prompts that this course would become the journey of discovering oneself—perhaps for the very first time—and seeing the confidence of that self-surgency unfold day by day, lesson by lesson.

I had no idea while I was creating FAQs and revising surveys that this course would be a safe place for a community of like-minded colleagues and souls to connect and share stories with one another.

I had no idea that this course would unlock vulnerability so fiercely that I would openly cry in front of strangers and feel like I knew them for years instead of only minutes.

I had no idea that this course would wrestle with my intellect and break my pride; no, I do not have all the answers, and this course taught me that.

I had no idea that this course would save lives, would be the anchor someone needed while they battled cancer, would create great places to work, would be the grace someone needed to let go of their past, would be the affirmation someone needed to step into their power.

I had no idea that this course would be holy ground—a place where participants could kneel before the broken pieces of their life’s story and surrender it all, and find healing in the surrender.

This course is healing. There is no other word for it. When I agreed to work with Corey on building this course, I had no idea what would become of it, but I can guarantee you that I did not see this coming. I did not see tears being shed, past hurts being released, confidence being built, relief flooding in, joy buoying up, and radical healing occurring from within.

Storytelling has always been magical to me—it has always been a place of healing. Art has always been that solid ground for me; with every heartache or every shock, I run to the page or I run to the canvas, because I recognize that art is my therapy. Art heals all wounds.

But I had no idea that art could do that for everyone—that storytelling could do that for everyone. That you didn’t have to be an artist or a professional storyteller to find the healing you needed. That all you had to do was show up, be open to your life, be ready to find the story just waiting inside you, and then to share it with just a handful of others.

Until this course.

Until I witnessed the storytellers in the room releasing all that pain and being met with beauty on the other side. Until I witnessed the frame being placed around the artwork that is their life—their story—and felt the relief of acceptance, of who they are and who they are still destined to become, wash over the room. Until I witnessed the honesty and support and love from those who bore witness to their story as they held space for the healing to take place within each other.

The magic of art will always heal, restore, and resurrect what was lost. This course is no exception. When we started this work all those months ago, I did not think I would be contributing to a masterpiece, or to hundreds and hundreds of them—all individuals, all worthy of a portrait to be painted, a story to be shared.

I did not realize that it would not just be storytellers or artists who would benefit from this course, but that everyone on this planet could benefit from this course—that after these last years, after the isolation and confusion and fear, we all needed healing. We all needed love and acceptance and kindness and the space to feel seen and heard. We all needed art.

Whatever it is you are experiencing right now, whether that’s loss or failure or pain or doubt, I want to encourage you to not hold back. To release your story, to paint your portrait, to fall in love with the person who is buried deep within. To find your purpose. To find your place in the world.

I want to encourage you to remember who you love—and to include yourself in that remembrance.