Storytelling — for the soul, for the kitchen.

My Instagram handle is The Midnight Storyteller — that’s what it has been for the last 9 years.

I started writing poetry very young — when I was 3ish. Then, at 15, I fell in love with photography. A couple of years later, it became the very purpose of my existence to choreograph words to dance on paper to the rhythm of my thoughts, aligned with the world I saw through my camera lens. And my Instagram account was a playground for my imagination.

Almost living in a daydream version of my reality, I’d wander around town clicking photos of strangers and striking conversations about life. Then, I’d let my thoughts run wild and take their stories further in my head, with a whimsical focus on stepping into their shoes. And finally? I’d put pen to paper and spin a poem — and share it with a photo where their expression most matched my words. Here’s an example.

Meeting strangers and listening to them talk about their lives fuelled me like nothing else. So there I’d sit after each encounter for hours at my table, burning the midnight oil, recounting their stories and rewriting them in poetry form — but also going just a tiny step further to offer the story some more completeness. The Midnight Storyteller. Probably makes more sense now, eh?

I remember wanting to be a professional photographer AND a poet. Somewhere along the way, I ditched the idea. I just wasn’t very comfortable making these hobbies the core focus of my career too — looking back, I am so glad I took that decision. But that’s a story for another time.

Back to storytelling.

The first job I ever had was a content writing internship, followed by a copywriting one. I didn’t know the bigger possibilities at the time, but to me writing was an intriguing balance of the comfort zone and the unknown. I was studying psychology at the time. Somewhere along the way, thanks to my internship at a marketing agency, I realised I could marry my writing skills to my interest in the psyche of human beings.

So I dropped out of my Psych major and restarted — this time with a marketing major (but because of some major FOMO, I also picked International Business like my friends, so I did a double major and absolutely loved it).

For 5 years, I studied marketing — from my bachelor to my master. And through countless internships that I don’t even detail on my resumé anymore to freelance work and full-time positions, the one thing that has never stopped showing up is — you guessed it — storytelling.

Storytelling is everywhere. From building a great product to marketing incredible products to people who actually need them, storytelling is quite literally everywhere.

Think social media influencers. What makes them so popular?

Think popular social movements. What makes them popular?

Or just think about your favourite form of art. What about Harry Potter makes it so appealing even today, after all this time, always? What about Forrest Gump made you cry your eyes out?

See, storytelling is everywhere. Different stories appeal to different people. Different people react to the same story differently. The same story can be told differently.

The truth is this — stories. sell. I’ve seen it in countless ways.

But that’s a story for another time.