This blog post was written by Katherine Cunalata about the December Digital Memoir Mapping Workshop. Katherine is a first year mentee in the Digital Media Mentoring Program.
I was given the unexpected opportunity of being selected for the Digital Media Mentoring Program last year. Until then, I had overlooked having a career in writing. I thought it meant someone wrote something great, someone else liked it, and then it was published. With every workshop I attend, my perspective continues to change.
Each month, I grow more excited to learn from our New School facilitators who partner with Girls Write Now. The workshop held in December was called the Digital Memoir Mapping workshop. We were able to tinker with Pixlr Photo Editor and Google Maps and create a new kind of memorabilia. We were shown a digital memoir style where we create a route for others to follow, as we tell the stories of our lives from the beginning until now on Google Maps, using images that we edit. This workshop taught me something new about Pixlr and showed me how to express my writing in a new way.
The computer lab was filled with little giggles and silliness. Our creativity, as teenagers, gives us an edge when it comes to tapping into our unknown talents. Maybe someone figured out they were really good at editing and had never come across Pixlr before. Maybe someone realized they’d want to practice memoir writing in the near future. At this point, we’re all just enjoying the company of people just like us.
The memoir workshop was fantastic, another excellent way to spend my Saturday afternoon.