Emerging Horizons, Part Four. Derek’s Story: More Than Words

Abstract

This fourth installment of the Emerging Horizons series explores Derek’s digital storytelling (DST) experience (please see the introductory editorial, Crafting Meaning, Cultivating Understanding, to access the documentary film on which the series is based). In contrast to other workshop participants, Derek’s primary goal for his digital story was to convey a specific, pre-determined meaningful moment from his cancer experience in a more compelling manner. Building from the image system Derek utilized in his digital story, and further contextualizing the events he describes, this interpretive article depicts the unique cancer survivorship experiences of Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) cancer survivors and demonstrates the possibilities of DST to help AYAs release “bottled up” emotions before they become rancid (i.e., release suppressed or repressed emotions before they transform into diagnosed psychosocial co-morbidity). Finally, Derek’s experience demonstrates how the multi-modal nature of DST can enable AYAs to incite an emotional response from their audience that can in turn confirm and affirm the life lessons embedded in their cancer experience.