A Storyteller's Bible

I am not religious.

I have never been religious.

Except for the rare moment in elementary school when I thought Jesus and Santa were the same person, which led me to praying for a typewriter for Christmas, I have never believed that God exists. This belief was exacerbated in me when I didn't receive that typewriter until over five years later.

If Santa/Jesus exists, wouldn't He bring me what I asked for?

Religion is a tricky subject.

I am not here to judge, or criticize, or tear down anyone's beliefs. As long as a person's religion makes them feel loved and helps them love others, I don't really care who anyone prays to, and I appreciate and adore them all the same, just without that trust in gods.

I do believe something is up with this whole "life" thing, though.

Why are we here? What is the purpose of these people being on this planet at this time?

Have you ever seen those memes like this:

"Can you believe we're alive at the same time as HUGH JACKMAN?"

I think it means something.

I think it matters that we're alive at the same time as Hugh Jackman.

You see, throughout my life, I have been obsessed with stories. When I was five years old, I was writing on my parents' computer all alone in a cold room, conjuring up tales of princesses and woodland creatures and magic. As I grew older, I embraced the medium of music and its abilities to tell stories. Recently, I have encountered theatre and all the wonderful illusions it can create.

I've learned that, in theatre, every piece of a show is important. Placing a specific prop in exactly the right spot is crucial. Properly lighting a stage to embrace key factors of the story is just as important. Even sewing a single stitch on a singer's costume can make or break the entire performance because of the circumstances needed for the actor's diaphragm to expand as they sing.

I believe that life is just like this.

I believe that somehow the Universe has arranged for every single atom around us to be in a certain place at a certain time. Our DNA is arranged perfectly just for us, you'll never find another person out there who is an exact copy of yourself. Sometimes I wonder if someone is doing the absolute exact some thing as I am doing in a moment. Is there someone else out there randomly writing an essay at midnight while huddled in their Broadway blanket, squinting at their computer screen because they thought they were going to bed so they stupidly took their glasses off? Does that person have a slobbery retainer clinging to the top of their mouth? Does that person have a massive zit on their cheek that popped out of nowhere? Do they really wish they had a fat bag of Cheezits right about now?

No. There is an extremely small probability that anyone is doing or feeling all of those things right now except for me. It could be true, and I may have a doppelganger out there waiting to murder me, but I seriously doubt it.

The Universe has arranged for all of these seemingly random things to come together just for me.

And, because of that, I think every moment is special. Every second is its own story.

Every book has a beginning, middle, and end, right? Somewhere in there is always a climax, or a part of the story that is the most exciting and fun to reread over and over again. As a writer, I have searched for tips on how to improve my writing all my life. One such tip is this:

There is no set-in-stone place for the climax to be.

Traditionally, English teachers always say it should be in the middle of the story, so as to keep momentum going. However, a lot of authors put their climaxes near the end of their story. Some even put it as the first line to entice the reader, and then they backtrack and explain how the story got there.

My reasoning is that you can put the climax of your life anywhere you want it to go.

Furthermore, every moment you're alive can be your story's climax.

Am I saying you should always be having fun and being happy and loving being alive? No. There are times when you have to be sad. There are days when life is hard and being a human doesn't make sense. You need those days.

The Universe is begging you to take those days, so you can better yourself.

I kneeled on my bedroom floor an hour ago, and I looked up at my window with this strange feeling that I needed to talk to this Universe I've been speaking of. Some might call that praying, but I specifically told the Universe that I do not believe in any god.

I thanked it for all it has given me, much as someone would do in a nightly prayer to Jesus. I told it how I appreciated the opportunities I have been granted in the past, the ones I'm currently holding onto, and the ones I will receive in the future. I thanked it for intertwining my life with so many others: my best friends, my loving family, people I used to know who I don't even speak to anymore, people I thought I was in love with.

I even told this Universe that I was appreciative for all the bad things that have happened to me, and with that, all the privileges I have considering my life has been a breeze compared to some people. I thanked it for nudging my mother and adoptive father apart when I was eight years old, since that incident brought me three new, wonderful stepparents. I also thanked it for the piles of clothes strewn around my room, because I know there are kids out there who do not have even that much.

I don't think this Universe is one person, like a god.

As I was talking to it, I started to wonder about what happens when we die. Our corpse rots in the dirt, right, so I realized that we all go back to the Universe when our story is up. And we help generate new stories.

Like a massive recycling bin of souls.

So here I was, sitting on my knees in the center of my bedroom, looking around the room and feeling as though I was sitting amongst every human who has ever existed, every thought that has ever crossed someone's mind, every emotion that has ever been felt.

It was pretty overwhelming.

I think that's why it's so much easier for us to just forget it all and ignore the noise. It makes our lives much simpler to just go about our day-to-day routines and mope around until we die.

But I personally think we all need to take a moment every once and a while to remember why we're here.

We're here to tell our story.

Not just our story, but those of everyone before us and everyone who ever will be. The stories of all the people we've met and have grown to love, and even those who we do not know we will love in the future.

We're here to be storytellers.

No matter who you are, whether you believe in religion or not, I hope you live to become the greatest storyteller you can. I pray I do the same.