Sometimes, it takes a long time to figure out what you want to be when you grow up. And then, one day, the obvious answer hits you like a ton of bricks falling on you in one of those forehead slapping moments. At least that’s how it happened to me.

As I grew up in very urban Elmwood Park in Cook County, Illinois, I was always talking and always talking with my hands. I also loved to read and could picture in my mind what was happening in the books. I tried drama in high school and wound up directing instead of acting. For a reason that escapes me now, I studied Physical Geography at U of I Chicago. After that, I supported myself doing administrative and accounting office work. In 1980, I moved 150 miles south to Champaign County in East Central Illinois, a big change from an urban to a more rural life. (I’ve now lived here long enough to be considered a “down-stater” instead of a “Chicagoan”. I have a good understanding of life in both worlds.)

I continued working in administrative and management positions. Once my two children reached school age, I threw myself into volunteer work with the local PTO, the Mahomet Public Library, and the Girl Scouts, among others. I was leading troops, organizing events, training other adults, giving history presentations and managing my family – and I was telling stories during all this time. My training sessions included stories, my historical presentations included stories, I told stories to whatever group of children I was working with, and I read stories all the time. My friends heard stories of my personal ups and downs for years, including through the one which I have affectionately named “the year of death and dying”. It was during that year that I developed my personal motto of “Could Be Worse!” My family and I listened to lots of storytelling tapes whenever we were on long car trips – and we all fell in love with storytellers Jackie Torrance, J.J. Reynaux, Donald Davis, Kathryn Windham and others. And all this time, it never occurred to me that storytelling could be a career for me.

The year I turned 50, my son and daughter were both in college and I was still volunteering for a career. For Girl Scouts, I was presenting historical stories (sometimes told in the first person) of Juliette Gordon Low. What a role model! She started the Girl Scouts in the US at the age of 52 and by the time of her death 15 years later had led it to become the largest organization for girls in the country. So, when I met a storyteller while I was volunteering at the junior high school, I knew it was possible to start a career no matter what age you were, but still hadn’t put all the clues together to know which career to choose. Following his invitation, I went to the Champaign-Urbana Storytelling Guild’s concerts, attended a meeting, joined, and told them a story….. WHAM! I slapped my forehead and said, “I must be grown up because now I finally know what I want to be!”

Yes, it all came together – the talking, the gesturing, the love of historical stories, reading, and listening to stories – all were encompassed in the joy of telling. I have been a professional storyteller ever since. It’s not hard for me to remember the stories I tell, whether I am retelling a folk tale or telling an original tale. I see the pictures of the stories in my mind and simply describe them to you so you can see the pictures, too.

Stories can come alive!
~ Camille

When I started my business, it seemed a natural thing to name it “Could Be Worse!” as that motto had appeared on all my emails for years. And besides, I certainly wouldn’t want to name it “could be better stories”, would I?!? There is, of course, the personal story I tell about the year that made me adopt the motto. There is also a story I have adapted and retell based on the old Eastern European Jewish folk tale, “It Could Always Be Worse”.