Dan Cuthbert

I may as well have been born with a book in my hands. As the son of a librarian, my early years were filled with stories. It was fun to dip into fictional worlds of characters similar and vastly different than me, especially when the real world proved too boring or difficult. Growing up, I would watch people and wonder what they were thinking of and what it would be like to step into their shoes. Why couldn’t the person sitting on a bench in the park not also be a spy scoping out an evil ring of foreign hackers playing a game of frisbee?  

 

A love of movies grew from those initial years of imagination. Now instead of just wondering how the stories would go in my mind, I could follow along as they whirled in front of me. Kids stuck in detention, black and white detective tales and even mutated turtles chowing down on weird pizza combinations played across the same screen. As the years went on, I realized that fictional situations could be pointing to real life issues, and actors and actresses on screen brought parts of their own true histories into incredible performances. The library at Eastern Illinois University, a 2 minute walk from my dorm room, held masterpieces in small round discs that could rival any Picasso or Van Gogh in my mind.

 

While time marches on, my desire to share and tell tales never fades. It is something truly special to find other creative people who all share the same goal: tell stories. It’s what makes us human