The Story Collector

A cute tale of people trying to get their lives together, worlds and decades apart but one desperately needing another. The Story collector is a tale of people lost, looking for something better for their lives and not sure where to find it.

One woman who’s is trying to find herself after her marriage dissolves and she finds herself at the airport on Christmas day. Some how in her sorrow and trying to figure out what she was to do, she ends up on a flight to Ireland…

Weird, yes. Not entirely sure how it happened considering that would be a pain to change everything but yet that magic of a book. I would absolutely love to walk into an airport, change my flight on a whim and just wake up somewhere else entirely.

Upon being there, trying to fight the urge to carry on with how her life was back in America. She wanted to heal from what she had experienced and try to figure out what the next steps in her, which is something we can all relate to and want. How many times have we just wanted to take time to figure out what our lives should be, but we are scared.

When she finds the journal, that is what really helps with this. It shows her that what she is feeling is normal, that some girl centuries ago was feeling the same way, trying to live out this imaginative life that she thought was what she wanted, not what she needed. It was not until the façade of what the life that was thought to be was ruined that she realized she needed to go against the grain.

Back to present time, our main character finds herself trying to follow the pathways that her journal companion would have taken years ago. Pretty easy when you are in a small town, and everyone remembers their family history back decades. I get that doing this shows a real sense of self, bringing yourself back to your roots or following the roots of someone else can really help shape where you want to go. You need to experience the life of someone else to help understand what you need to fix yours.

It is often times during this period of fixing yourself, when you are so focused inwards that you don’t register what is happening outwards that something always seems to happen. My grandma and I’m sure many others would always say how love happens when you least expect it and are not looking for it and that happens here.

Two broken souls who have been hiding secrets in their past, not allowing themselves to grieve what had happened find each other. It is only when you are with someone who has their own pain, different and yet equally as tragic, can you fully let go of what you were holding onto and realize what is needed to move forward.

There is some mutual understanding of what is unsaid and what needs to be done next. And sometimes, as in the case here, something beautiful can blossom from the tragic pasts shared. Love happens in mysterious ways after all. It is also in this where you are free and we see that transformation of our main character, to understand what who she is, is enough, that she has talent and purpose.

Is the tale the most inventive that I have ever read? No. However, it is a nice spin on how to find oneself and love oneself in order to be loved. As well to have the courage to leave something that clearly isn’t working, which is never easy. Perhaps that is the lesson. To believe you are worth something, even if you and your life shows your otherwise.