This was an audio assignment from the DS106 bank that I really wanted to do, I thought I had a really cool story to share. I basically had to describe a time in my life where I faced a rough patch and it’s ironic that, that time was actually this year. I recorded this two minute confession and uploaded it to Soundcloud.
For my first audio assignment, that is worth a total of four stars A life in Two Minutes, I decided to share a personal story about a moment in my life where I felt alone and pressured to help take care of my baby sister, starting my freshman year in college, and juggling a part time job. After my brother left I had so much resentment towards him. This is a true moment in my life where I felt selfish and stubborn one night. I recorded and uploaded this audio assignment on SoundCloud.
Although I had more intense, intimate stories I could have used for the Life In Two Minutes assignment, this was the only one I was comfortable putting out there. It shows, too–everything from the My Life Is True project, which was the assignment’s inspiration, hits a lot harder. I hope that at the very least people who have suffered from migraines can relate to this, though.
At first, I was certain that this assignment would be easy; oh, spend two minutes talking about my weird, wonky, fairly storied life? Sure, I do that all the time! Then I realized that the majority of Big Important Things I’ve gone through aren’t stories I’m entirely willing to share with this class, or the internet as a whole—at least not without an alias to hide behind. Weird how that works, isn’t it?
Eventually, after writing out one very personal story and ditching it (three times), attempting to write something about Wilfrid Owen and his relationship with Siegfried Sassoon and failing to get any research cobbled together on the history of women in insane asylums, I wrote up a short piece about having migraines.
I’ve discovered that (again, thank you Ira Glass) the biggest component to a successful radio ANYTHING is a good script. You can’t just ad-lib this stuff, it has to have structure and thought behind it or it won’t work. That’s one of the main reasons “This American Life” is so successful—the writing is EXCELLENT. I don’t think mine compares, not by a long shot, but at the very least it tells a coherent story. It’s got a beginning, a middle and an end. Somebody could hear it with no context and understand it, which makes it at least moderately successful in my book.
I also thought this assignment wouldn’t utilize much in the way of audio editing skills since I didn’t have to splice in any sound effects or background music. WRONG AGAIN! Turns out when you record three minutes of audio, finding a full minute to cut out is pretty difficult. This led to an unexpected and rather annoying effect in the final edit: there aren’t any significant pauses in the recording. Turns out that when humans talk, they pause sometimes to add emphasis, breathe, indicate a change of subject, that sort of thing. The tempo of my final story sounds rather stilted and unnatural because I had to cut the majority of the natural pauses to fit in all the stuff I wanted to say.
Overall, I’d like to go back and edit what I wrote in order to make that more concise. It’d make the audio sound better if I had more room for pauses and breath, rather than mashing everything together for the sake of saying ALL the things. Brevity has never been my strong suit, though, and I’m at least glad I figured out a way to do this assignment in the end; it’s one I had my eye on from the beginning of Audio Week.
A 4-star assignment: A Life In Two Minutes: Create a 2 minute audio story inspired by the “My Life is True” series produced by KQED of Northern California. KQED works with people “to explain, in their own words, a significant moment or stubborn problem.” Work with a friend or tell a story about yourself that describes such a moment or problem. Be sure to keep it at two minutes or less! Thanks to GNA Garcia for posting a link to this awesome site on Twitter and inspiring assignment ideas for DS106.
my life is true by melindakumi
Transcript:
He doesn’t need a chair to assist him with mobility like Jill, the girl I work for, he doesn’t need an attending to sit with him during the day and he never required hospitalization. He needs help with the way that he learns, processes, and retells information. My life took a backseat, but I understood that because he was the baby and he was the boy. My brother’s learning disability put us in two separate schools by the time I was 10 and he 9. I learned to love solitude never socializing outside of class because it was something I was comfortable with. It wasn’t until I watched a video on paws4people at the age of 21 about a girl named Amanda that made me stop and think twice about all the little moments and questions that sat neglected. I discovered how many holes in my memories and in my stories and in my perception of my brother and of family I had. I still don’t know what kind of learning disorder he has. I still don’t know the severity of financial weight we are under because of his schooling and testings, but I know that is a driving factor for the things my family is doing now and for the decisions I have yet to make.
While this just seems like a story calling for the pity party festivities to begin, there are a lot of things needing to be addressed because of having a brother with an invisible disability. This is a call to action for the parents to keep all parties informed and included. A call to action for the awareness of such invisible disabilities whether they be physical, emotional, mental or social or any other types. Above all, this is for the caretakers, educators, and other family members affected by those with disabilities – you are NOT alone. Having a brother with these kinds of issues makes me more aware of the holes in our educational system and compassionate for those with visible and invisible disabilities.
with a perspective i’m melinda
(Image made with Adobe Elements 3.0 and audio recorded directly into soundcloud.)
A LIfe in Two Minutes assignment hit me at the heart. i shared a story very close to home, my childhood, It was not easy growing up for me, you see, my mother had me at only thirteen years old. She did not have the support of her parents because they felt like she was embarrassing the family by getting pregnant. They disowned her and kicked her out of their house, She became a nomad, a pregnant one that is, moving for place to place in search of support or any job that will help her save a little to raise her child. She was lost and lonely. My father was not around, he simply did not care. He was just a boy who could not handle any responsibility. so there she was all by herself, abandoned and scared. I don’t know how but she did it. She kept her baby who had accompanied her through all nine months of struggle. All she had was me. A thirteen year old in a delivery room all alone. Though she was taking on a whole new life, remained hopeful. People questioned her motives, they thought, if she couldn’t even feed herself how is she going to feed her child? They made fun of her, pitted her under estimated her. She did it, she found a job found a good man and had two more children. Nobody believed in her but here i am today. She raised a smart girl, I have been an honor student since elementary school. when i would receive awards i would always look into the crown of proud parents and there she was filled with tears of joy and accomplishment, Although we didn’t have much money she put it in every activity she wanted, swimming cheer leading basketball and even modeling. Thanks to her, i am the person i am today. Because she encouraged me, i overcame any and all expectations. People thought she would fail as a mother and that her kids would repeat her mistakes. Well i didn’t! We are not her mistakes, she says. Because if it wasn’t for me she would have never found the strenght to prosper. Here i am today, a twenty years old, full time college student, with no kids, a full time job and a internship at Seventeen Magazine. I even model because she believed in me. I could not thank her enough for everything she has done for me. She is my everything. She is my hero.
success by Valerie Mercado 1
Did this in less than two minutes. Talked about my time in Washington last summer. Ironically, I was next to the Washington Monument just days before the East Coast earthquake which damaged it slightly I used audacity for all the audio clips here.
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/a-life-in-two-minutes/
“A life in 2 minutes” By : Alasia Laureano
For this audio assignment I had to tell a story about myself that describes such a moment or problem in 2 minutes or less. So I decided to just describe my life and something that my parents always taught me to do while growing up, which was to always fight for what you want, and to never give up no matter what. In my 2 minute speech I inform people on how I am a determined person and how I want my life to be set in the future. The process for me was very easy I simply just used my phone once again (the voice-memo app) to record my voice and the story using my headphones which also has a mic inside it.
