Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
Swift’s story – click to listen.
Welcome to the third installment of Swat Storytime, previously Friday Storytime. This weekly feature showcases student voices, each sharing a brief, personal story in audio form. This is the last in a series on Serendipity.
As Pierre Bourdieu writes regarding his collection of oral history, La Misere du Monde, an interview can often “be considered a sort of spiritual exercise, aiming to attain, through forgetfulness of self, a true transformation of the view we take of others in the ordinary circumstances of life.”
Further, the act of listening requires a “welcoming disposition, which leads one to share the problems of the respondent, the capacity to take her and understand her just as she is, in her distinctive necessity.” Listening, he continues, “is a sort of intellectual love.”
This series strives to showcase the “distinctive necessity” of every student and the stories they share.
Above is a link to a story told by Swift Shuker-Haines ’14 about stumbling into a strange but lucrative opportunity in their hometown.
If you have a four to five minute-long story you would like to share, please email aholtzm1@swarthmore.edu to set up a recording time. Next month’s theme is Survival.
Photo by Abby Holtzman/The Daily Gazette.
