“There’s More,” a storytelling series on the human condition: being within and without

Stephanie Lynch, director of health promotion at USD, was one of the storytellers who shared her life-changing experience on the theme of being “a/part” for the series

Brittany Lang/ Feature Editor/The USD Vista

“There’s More,” a live storytelling initiative put on by the Humanities Center and Changemaker Hub, held their first event of the month this past Thursday, Sept. 24. Three speakers and a group of eager listeners came together to hear the storytellers share a story based on the theme of “a/part.” The theme can be interpreted as “apart” as in separate, or as “a part” as in a part of the whole.

The goal of “There’s More” is to bring to light the raw and meaningful experiences of the human condition. The theme of this month’s event was partially inspired by the great challenges we have all faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, where we each have spent much time separated from the rest of humanity yet have simultaneously learned what it truly means to be a part of the greater, global collective. 

The theme was created to prompt the storytellers to recount any significant time in their lives when they were within and without, and how it shaped them as a human being. 

The first speaker to share her story was Stephanie Lynch, the director of health promotion at the Center for Health and Wellness. She shared a story titled “A Little Bit Like Me” of an unexpected and life-changing experience she had that began just before the world went into lockdown.

Lynch’s world was flipped upside down after she bought a DNA testing kit for herself and her husband during the holiday season last year, in hopes that she would discover something interesting about her ancestry. She received her results of the test in February and made a shocking discovery. 

“All I remembered in the moment that followed was the feeling of my heart stopping in a way I had never felt before,” Lynch recalled. “There in no uncertain terms were two words I had never seen in connection to myself before: half-brother.”

The DNA of a man exactly matched the criteria of a half-sibling. Lynch had a thousand questions over how and why this could be. She was an only child and considered herself to be from “the most ordinary of ordinary families.”

Lynch contacted the man who appeared to share a lot of the same DNA as her immediately though instant message, and to her surprise he responded right away. They discovered that Lynch’s half-brother was the son of her father and was adopted at birth before her parents met. She was the first genetic relative he had been connected to. 

“His existence was a true and honest surprise to my dad and brought quite a bit of happy shock to my entire family,” she said.

Through the use of FaceTime and text messaging, Lynch and her half-brother soon became extremely close friends. They quickly devised a plan to meet in person which wasn’t easy as he lives in Oregon, while she lives in San Diego. However, COVID-19 had other plans. Only two weeks after booking her flight, Lynch watched the entire world shut down.

“Big sloppy tears formed in my eyes as I canceled my April trip and later a trip we had set for May,” Lynch recounted. “I grieved alongside so many others facing big life postponements and disappointments.” 

“While the world stayed home and learned to cook, and binged watch a documentary about an outspoken tiger keeper, and Zoomed into a life we knew before, my brother and I resolved ourselves to the reality that we weren’t going to get to meet anytime too soon, and that we would have to continue to get to know each other from a thousand miles apart,” she said.

Lynch and her brother spent all of quarantine competing to send each other the best memes, FaceTiming, and asking each other a never-ending list of questions in order to strengthen their bond despite being unable to be together in person — they adapted. 

Eventually as counties started to open and healthcare workers began to understand the virus better, Lynch planned a road trip that seemed to be a low calculated risk as long as they took the necessary precautions beforehand. Her brother was able to make the trip down to San Diego over the summer where Lynch, their dad, and the rest of her family were finally able to be united with their new family member after months of anxious anticipation.

“I finally got to quietly observe mannerisms matching my own and my dad’s, and to be able to be in the presence of someone who was indeed, a little bit like me,” Lynch shared.

Lynch expressed her gratitude for the joy she had in being able to build a strong connection with her long-lost sibling during a global shutdown, even if nothing did compare to actually seeing each other in person.
“I am somehow standing on this end of the peak of a great mountain, the global pandemic, with the bonus of a new family member,” Lynch concluded.

To hear the other two inspiring storytellers share their stories on the theme of being “a/part”, Michael Lomas, a graduate student at the Francisan School of Theology at USD, and Haley Swartz, a professor in the Department of Communication Studies, visit iTunes and search “There’s More” to find the podcast of this event. All of the past recordings of the series from 2018 to 2020 can be found here, as well as all future recordings. 

Tune in to the next storytelling event in the “There’s More” series on Oct. 15, 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. via Zoom.