The Wildling Story Booth: Recent Episodes
The Wildling
Welcome to The Wildling Story Booth. Your story matters, and we want to hear it. The Wildling Story Booth is a special project in partnership with filmmaker Maribeth Romslo to capture youth audio stories that shape who we are.Our first season of Story Booth, "Growing Up in a Pandemic," showcases storytellers, ages 7-18, sharing their personal thoughts and experiences from the heart of the pandemic. The stories range from tear-jerking tales of worry to triumphant social relationships and wacky isolation memories. You can listen to stories from the “Growing Up in a Pandemic” showcase.To learn more about the project and to contribute your voice, visit https://thewildling.org/story-booth.
"I want to use my voice to convince people that war is bad. Everybody deserve fairness and peace." - Htee, 12th grade
"In order to imagine a better would mean working towards a more just an inclusive society, where all other individuals have equal rights and opportunities regardless of their background." - Sammy, 11th grade
"I sought to connect with those who may have faced a similar battle, reassuring them that they were not alone. And for myself, I learned to understand and forgive my dad." Jorja, 12th grade
"Frida Kahlo is a trailblazer. I look up to her. Frida shows me that I can do anything I put my mind to. She shows me to be fierce when things are tough." - Josefina, 5th grade
"I want to make sure I can pave a positive way for myself, and having stability for myself." - Joseline, 12th grade
"Whoever you have around you depends on how you're gonna be in life and how you're gonna act." - Fojay, 12th grade
"Growing up there have been times where I felt small felt as if I didn't matter. I still think like that sometimes, but I believe it's worth considering how we matter as people." - Murwat, 11th grade
"Interacting with strangers on the subway is one of the simple joys I found in life because it reminds me that we're all in this together." - Sunde, 9th grade
"The world has been continuously ending since I can remember. Not even just the pandemic, but politics, climate change capitalism." - Benny, 12th grade
"My parents are always there for me and always proud and willing to support my goals." - Mathias, 6th grade
"When I was watching the news about Russia taking over Ukraine, it struck me like lightning." - Kummal, 4th grade
"This is what imagining bigger looks like to me — encouraging others to be involved in new things that you think they will enjoy." - Sierra, 12th grade
"My passion in the fields of technology and healthcare makes me dream big as the world is shrinking, with rapid changes in technology." - Anushka, 12th grade
"I believe the odds of how realistic a dream can be are determined by how much you believe in yourself and are able to think outside the box." - Margaret, 10th grade
"I hope I will contribute to the development of a theory that applies all four forces to quantum mechanics. This motivates me to continue to learn and discover because of the possibility that I could further humanity's knowledge of the fundamentals of our universe and existence." - Kate, 11th grade
"Making history should be defined as the moments in life when we've struggled and overcome, cried, smiled, fallen, gotten back up, made mistakes, and learned from them." - Bukunmi, 11th grade
"Placing another life at the center of my little solar system, reshapes my need to be perfect into a desire to be helpful." - Isabelle, 12th grade
"My favorite sport is basketball. I have a hoop on my garage, so I can get to practice a lot." - Jeriah, 5th grade
"Dear nature, I love climbing on your trees. I love doing parkour in the forest." - Najohn, 4th grade
"I am me and that's all I need. I feel like me the most when I'm outside." - Darrell, 4th grade
"I like to ride my bike outside because it feels refreshing, fun and adventurous." - Octavia, 4th grade
"I like to ride my bike outside because it feels refreshing, fun and adventurous." - Dezarae, 4th grade
"Dear nature can you pick a weather? One day you're raining and the next it's sunny. Please pick one." - Takarionia, 4th grade
"One time, we were having a birthday pool party next door with a jumpy house. My brother went to down the slide so fast, he fell off." - Asia, 4th grade
"Nights were warm but not sweltering and clear, marked with hours spent around a campfire or at the center of boat, listening to country and rock music from crackly speaker." - Elinor, 12th grade
"We walked out in a very crowded urban area and there's just a peacock walking in like the one plot of grass." - Kenna, 12th grade
"One step forward, two steps back. So many obstacles along the way." - Yohanis, educator
"Sunrays battle with frost dusted winds and small green buds are eager to emerge from underneath the cold and cracked, sometimes even snow dusted earth." - Basanti, educator
"Earlier this year, I determined that I would live by a phrase I'd stumbled upon: be where your feet are." - Mia, age 19
"I take those simple steps outside on my first walk in months and I see everything that nature provides and I breathe in the fresh air and I know that I'm going to be okay." - Isabel, age 20
"When I go out and I see a plant by myself, I can identify it without having to search it up or anything." - Rashad, 11th grade
"The dog looked at me and started chasing me. And I ran. Keep in mind, I play soccer as well. So I ran really fast." - Ahmed, age 14
"I trudged through the curb with a water spilling over my boots. I looked down and saw leaves roaring through the water." - Noah, age 18
"Something I did this summer was going to the Mississippi River to catch dragonflies." - Charlie, age 15
"I was just peacefully sitting trying to eat my blueberry muffin and a seagull stole my muffin out of my hand." - Maya, age 14
"The outdoors open many opportunities to me and give me lots of time to think to myself." - Chouamon, age 16
"When you set your hook and you finally catch a fish and you can feel the adrenaline pumping through your body." - Billy, age 14
"Sometimes if I like lay outside in the winter, it's too quiet. I can and I hear my own heartbeat." - Rose, age 16
"I love the flowers, the smell of flowers when going through gardens. I love the bees buzzing around those flowers." - Gailthavhan, age 17
"It was in winter and it was very cold out but we were very excited to go skiing." - Eli, 5th grade
"When we finished that trail, we decided to grab some lemonade because we were very hot, even though it was only 75 degrees out." - Fritz, 6th grade
"I walk outside. I see a bee pollinating a flower. My feet are crushing the leaves on the ground. Now crab apples. I take a big deep breath of fresh air." - Miles, 6th grade
"We were walking for three hours. We saw deer, we saw birds. And then right in front of me, there was a huge snake." - Olivia, 4th grade
"We went through the woods. A small hill came up and it was pretty steep. I was the last person to do it. And I was scared." - Liam, 6th grade
"At the ocean, we play in the waves, and we look for jellyfish and sand dollars and crabs." - Sabine, 4th grade
"I was on a hike outdoors and my sister was behind all of us. But somehow she got to the top before all of us." - Olivia, 4th grade
"When I get to go outside, I feel like a bird that was just let out of its cage." - Ingrid, 5th grade
"You got a lot to live for, you know, you never know what's out there in the world that's there for you." - DeAngelo, 12th grade
"It just made me happy knowing that after a long day of school, I would be able to spend some time outside." - Allison, 12th grade
"My dad is someone who supports my dream. I started drawing, I would come home and show my dad and he would say, my drawing "looks great kid, keep up with the good work." - Kaliah, 11th grade
"If we don't give everyone a fair shot, we will lose so much potential that would otherwise be blocked." - Tyson, 12th grade
"My teammates respected I mean I respected them. We shared good stories." - James, 12th grade
"I've grown up in Minnesota. But it's not all that I've known. My dad is Tunisian. I have two half siblings who live in Tunisia along with his whole side of the family." - Lina, 9th grade
"Dance is an art form in which you can express feeling without a single word. It is a place in which not everything has to be understood to be received." - Sofia, 9th grade
"Young people are expected to both inherit and save our fractured world." - Hema, 12th grade
"I will show the world there's more than just black and white. And I will use my degree and voice to make sure that people are seen in this world and heard." - Amyeir, 12th grade
"The trees were very pretty as the wind blew through their leaves, and we climbed up the steep hill." - Wellan, 4th grade
"We heard that there is a river nearby, so we decided to try swimming. When we got there, the water was very cold, but we got used to it." - Francois, 4th grade
Spring flowers blooms blossom.
Baby birds trip for their food.
Sunshines and snow melts.
"Being biracial can be pretty difficult a lot of times. There are days where I feel like my cultural worlds are totally on opposite poles of this world." - Anja, 8th grade
"We need to recognize our personal and historical negative patterns and start a new pattern based on understanding empathy and revolutionary love." - Arameni, 6th grade
"Two police cars pulled up. They approached my brother and they handcuffed him and put him against the front of the car. My mother was very upset." - DeAnthony, 7th grade
"Remember where you came from. Remember the rice paddies and blazing sun and Peking duck and polluted skies that are your own. Remember your heart, your dragon, your fire." - Hallie, 10th grade
"Me and my family were at the George Floyd Square. My mom was tearing up, my dad was crying and my sister was crying. And I didn't want to cry because I wanted to be strong for my sister." - KiKi, 5th grade
"I wash my hair on odd days. I love my hair because it's curly and puffy. This is why my hair is special." - Kasia, 4th grade
"My teacher used the common excuses like 'I have Black friends', her being a white woman trying to justify that she said the N word." - Kate Marie, 12th grade
"During the COVID lockdown after the murder of George Floyd, I was confused. There were so many questions and not enough answers." - Evan, 11th grade
"My classmates designed a game in which they would come up to me and try and pronounce my name. None of them ever could." - Avery, 10th grade
"I try to wipe off the brown of my skin because I thought that I was genuinely dirty. And my mom said 'What are you doing? You're not dirty. This is your beautiful skin'." - Maria
"My parents were both born in Ecuador, and I was born in the United States. My first language was Spanish." - Kamila, 7th grade
"Every time I ride in the car and a police car passes by, I think, what if they think I stole something or did something wrong?" - Janna, 7th grade
"The art teacher would constantly mix me up with all the other black students. I just don't understand how you can mix this up because we are clearly different people." - Jackson, 11th grade
"The first thing he asked me is if he says, Are you from the hood, where your guns and drugs?" - Julius, 12th grade
"Even though things are in the past. And they might be considered history in a textbook, they affect real life people today." - Grace, 11th grade
"You can't let anybody define you or tell you who you are. Sometimes you could take the negativity of situation and flip it into a positive triumph. " - John Paul (Breezy 2 Fresh)
"I just really love using music as a vehicle and a means of creation to manifest the state I wish to be in." - Bakari
"Being born to immigrants that fled a civil war in Somalia, I didn't realize that I would face a ton of microaggressions during my first year as a freshman in high school." - Maisa, 12th grade
"This song ("Eguw Meri") means "The Song of the Victorius". I wrote it the day of the verdict in the George Floyd murder trial." - Obi
"The black girl role model I look up to is That Girl Lay Lay because she's confident and she's not afraid to speak her mind." - Tavi, 4th grade
"I am half white and half Asian, specifically Indian. And both my parents are immigrants. So growing up in the United States is a completely unique experience for me." - Sonia
"What I love about being a Black girl is that we have good food, good culture, good music. We can wear braids and beads and our our beads click clacking down the street." - Brianna, 4th grade
"When I get my hair done and I get some weave in my hair, people will ask me if I dyed my hair in our hate that when people ask me that because people look at me weird." - Fhrrah, 4th grade
"What was in my head was more just assimilate, trying to fit in with what they already had going on, rather than being myself because I didn't really know who myself was, at the time." - Mac
"I love being Black because I feel so good when we sing songs about our history. like Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King Jr." - Aniyah, 4th grade
"I've been one of the only faces of color within a grouping of white children." - Julianna, 11th grade
"There are so many parts of who I am to share, I'm a dancer, actor, I am outspoken and creative, and I am caring. I also am adopted." - Mathias, 4th grade
"I've learned how racism has been institutionalized through the various systems that make up our country." - Alison, 12th grade
"In fifth grade, an older student told me that I looked like a monkey because of a hair on my arms. He didn't know that I was going to shave my hair off for four more years after that." - A.M., 11th grade
"My classmates designed a game in which they would come up to me and try and pronounce my name. None of them ever could." - Grace, 10th grade
"I was born on May 25th. And if that day sounds familiar, it's the same day George Floyd was killed." - Jasper, 11th grade
"Every moment is precious and every moment could be our last." - Paul (Ch!nwe), Ozone Creations
"I think that the hardest part about growing up in this Hispanic culture and being a first generation, Mexican American is just being independent. Especially being a girl in Hispanic culture." - Quetzali
"I am Black. And my school marks me under African American. But nobody in my family is African at all." - Genesis, 8th grade
"One kid blurted out, that's not your mom, you're adopted. And I remember I couldn't even breathe. All the kids started laughing. And I just remember running out crying." - Sumer, Ozone Creations
"I was outraged that the teacher did not do anything. It was a racial slur." - Gabe, 4th grade
"I was at the Mall of America and there were a lot of Somalian people. And this kid that came with us, called them monkeys. I know that's not right." - Tierney, 4th grade
"One day me and my friend were at the park. Another kid came up to us and said, 'What's your color?'.'" - Tarodji, 4th grade
"How I feel about racist people is that it makes me upset and curious." - Rain, 4th grade
"I'm an Asian girl that gets compared to a lot of other Asian girls. They assume that I'm a Korean girl, a Chinese girls, a lot of other girls, I'm just a Burmese girl." - Leah, 4th grade
"Some kids came up to me and said, You shouldn't be playing with these black kids come play with us. And I said, these are my friends, I'm going to play with whoever I want to play with." - Dahalia, 4th grade
"I will never be embarrassed of my culture, because that's what makes me different and unique." - Michelle, 4th grade
"It made me feel like why did he choose to pull us over out of all cars that he could have pulled over?" -Mykah, 4th grade
"I told her that she was racist. And then I had to go to the office. It made me and it made me very mad. Life isn't fair." - Makai, 4th grade
"I'm proud of being myself. I love my language. I'm connected with my mom by singing and dancing to Mexican music." - Declan, 4th grade
"He said the N word, which made me really mad. And then he apologized to the whole entire class but I felt like it didn't mean anything." - Ava & King, 4th grade
"Some people on the news, were chasing somebody, a black guy, and it made me upset." - Anthony, 4th grade
"When that boy said that about us, I feel kind of sad and mad a little, because that's really racist and that hurt my feelings." - Makieya & Iyannia
“The pandemic helped me to be more independent. I learned to do things more by myself. I made my own schedule, made my own lunch, made time to do homework, made time to have breaks, etc. Before I always had to ask my parents what was happening that day, but I learned how to ask myself for help.” - Frances, 7th grade
“I found an obsession during this time, something to take my mind off of all the boredom around me. And I got obsessed with music. I relaxed in the strange yet suddenly common state of solitude that the world offered me.” - Ruben, 12th grade
“I wasn’t Ferris Bueller running around skipping class. I was in my bed, doing my work, telling myself to wait one more minute before joining the next Zoom class. It didn’t make sense, any of it.” - Mia, 9th grade
“The friendships I had that weren’t true, I lost, but the ones that were genuine grew stronger than ever before.” - Grace, 8th grade
“Everyone else was watching the sunset from some other world adjacent to the one I occupied where they couldn’t see me. I didn’t want a sunset, but the sky was putting on a show.” - Leigh, 11th grade
“I realized that this is not going to be over soon. I’m not going to see my friends, my family, nothing. And when I realized it, I was heartbroken.” - Ryan, 4th grade
“There’s a whole other year ahead of you and years after that, and you have your wonderful self, the one who made it through the year COVID struck the world.” - Sara, 7th grade
"I developed my own opinion instead of just doing whatever anyone else was doing. I researched stuff before I actually wanted to say something about it.” - Makia, 9th grade
“I woke up at around one in the morning to my parents worried voices. I couldn’t tell what they were saying, I walked into their room and asked what they were saying. ‘We will explain it in the morning’, my mom said to me. I went to bed that night with a sore stomach, sweaty palms, and worried thoughts.” - Jo, 7th grade
“I’m so sorry your senior year is ruined. Bummer. Your last year in high school is online. It must suck to not be able to see anyone.” - Sophia, 12th grade
“As sad as it sounds, I went outside and played with trees. I was a big football kid. But what’s football without people to throw the ball to? So I used to throw the ball at trees, anything just to keep my mind off of the fact that I was alone.” - JoJo, 9th grade
“My seventh birthday was during the pandemic. I did not have a normal birthday because of COVID. Instead, I had a mini birthday in my backyard.” - Abby, 2nd grade
“I never would have thought that my first division from others would be my skin color. I woke up to the news playing downstairs. I ran to see what was going on, to be met by a familiar name on the screen. George Floyd was pronounced dead by police brutality on May 25 2020.” - Julianna, 8th grade
“It felt like the world was shutting down. Because of coronavirus, my birthday was my last day in person at my elementary school. Everything changed.” - Max, 7th grade
“The last year for me and for many people was a difficult one, not just because of the pandemic, but because of the protests that followed the death of George Floyd. It really brought an awareness to police brutality here in the United States for many people who were unaware of the abuses that were taking place for many, many years.” - Jaden, 8th grade
“I was doing alright until online school came. I mean, how bad could it be being in your house, being in your room staring at a computer? I was wrong.” - Julia, 8th grade
“I was jolted awake by my phone’s alarm clock—set to 10 minutes before class began, to maximize sleeping time. With a wonderful dream cut short by the misgivings of online school, I lay in bed with my eyes awake but still closed, desperate for just another wink of sleep.” - Jeffrey, 11th grade
“Here’s what time stopping meant. I stopped playing basketball. I stopped seeing my friends and sitting by them at lunch. I stopped sharing meals with my grandparents. I stopped going to the park. I stopped performing musical theater. I stopped being sure if we’d ever go back to school. I stopped caring about my appearance. I stopped feeling frantic.” - Sadie, 7th grade
“I got way bored, and then my friends wouldn’t answer their phone. Then I had to play all by myself. So I just drew and watched protests on TikTok.” - Korron, 5th grade
“The last couple of days we were in school, it was like there was no one there.” - Cash, 8th grade
“Through it all, the struggles and mental health dips, the breakdowns in the seemingly endless, endless zoom classes…There was always a story to tell and a story to read. The stories were no longer an optional escape from the sci-fi reality we called the pandemic.” - Christyn, 11th grade
“In a city that was once known as the city that never sleeps, it is almost as if the city has now fallen to rest.” - Obinna, 10th grade
“The pandemic helped me be creative with my art. I started just doing digital art and started to paint again too.” - Anastasia, 6th grade
“Until quarantine, I never looked inwards and saw the hole in my heart.” - Angela, 11th grade
“When I got to my new school, I wasn’t able to see half my classmates because the school was split up. And guess whose fault it was? Yep. COVID.” - Nolan, 8th grade
“As a biracial brown person, I knew about the injustices and police brutality towards minorities. But I never thought that anything like this would happen in Minneapolis.” - Nithali, 9th grade
“I realized I’d compartmentalized everything. I thought only in logical terms — this is the way things are, this is what I have to do. I had to keep moving, keep working. I couldn’t control what was going on in the world, but I could keep control over my life. I never processed what I lost.” - Abby, 11th grade
“When we came back to school, we had to wear a mask. If we wanted to play a game or something like that it was hard because we would be out of breath.” - Serenity, 5th grade
“Having to wear a doctor’s mask in a store. It’s not that bad. Not as bad as having lives at stake.” - Harley, 5th grade