One More Down, Millions To Go!
7.5.21
C. Derick Miller
Head Writer
Your Stories On Video
I’m super stoked! One more down and a million more to go! I just got off the phone with my favorite client interview so far and it was amazing!
Actually, I didn’t even realize how amazing it actually was until I finished the interview and instinctively Googled her. I mean, I’ve worked in the fine art industry for over a decade, and it’s become a habit to look up peoples’ names when they contact me. Does everyone do this in modern times or am I just the strange one? Be honest.
I won’t put her name here because that’s just a little too personal. After all, I’m a firm believer in client/writer confidentiality. I will say this. She is a retired senator and, man, did she ever have a story to tell!
First and foremost (and maybe a fact I got a little giddy about), she was once in the presence of a man I consider to be my greatest literary influence and idol. The late, great gonzo journalist Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. The interview nearly went off the rails after she told me about this, but I managed to get it back on track and stay professional. It was tough, though…
Any other celebrity encounters? Of course there were! She also met Helen Keller and got to shake hands with Judy Garland at a concert. Of all my celebrity encounters (mostly horror icons. I’m a horror fiction writer and attend conferences with several celebrities. I like to pretend I am one as well), I can’t imagine what it would be like to be face to face with Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz!
Still, the celebrity encounters ultimately weren’t the most impressive parts of this lady’s life. Not by a long shot. No, the most impressive part was that she grew up in a children’s home because her mother was unable to raise her and her siblings without assistance from a dead-beat father who’d run off and ultimately went to jail. It was so bad, in fact, that the other children in school used to tease her and call her ‘Jail Bird’. To make matters worse, she attended school during World War II and some of her friends were dying on the front lines.
Rather than use these experiences as a sort of crutch or sympathy ploy throughout her adult life, she went on to graduate college, get married, have children, and become a U.S. Senator!!! I don’t believe this sort of thing happens too often in today’s times. Most are obsessed with the attention this type of childhood would bring them on social media platforms and use it as an excuse to accept the failures of their adult life. Not this lady. She picked herself up, dusted herself off as well as the dusty ones around her, and achieved greatness!
It was an inspiring phone call and I hope to be a part of many more in the near future. Perhaps we should make a Your Stories On Video inspiring compilation film to light a fire beneath the pants of today’s youth? YSOV Greatest Hits? Just a thought…
(On a positive note, she eventually gained the respect of the teasing boys by kicking all their butts in baseball!)