We have all heard the classic stories like "Hansel and Gretel," "Cinderella," "Romeo and Juliette" and so on. Even though you may have heard these stories thousands of times, it fascinates me how each time a story is told, it is completely original. A story can never be told in the exact same way. There are thousands of stories out there and they are all so unique, yet they all have one thing in common. Humans.

Last semester I took this storytelling class. It was essentially theatrical public speaking. We had to choose various folk tales, fairy tales, fables and retell them in a creative way in front of the class. If I am being honest, the class was my nightmare. However, instead of telling myself, "I hate this class," and giving up, I decided to look at things from a new perspective.

All of the stories that my classmates shared during class shared a common theme, the story of humans. Love, joy, tragedy, faith or family, the foundation of these stories rely on elements of humanity. We share stories because they allow us to relate to one another, they allow us to feel connected.

Throughout the past few weeks, I have been asking various friends, family members, and random strangers a question. Things like, "What is the thing you value most in life?" "Who has been the most influential person in your life?" "What has been the hardest moment in your life?" "What has been the proudest moment of your life?"

I wanted to give them a chance to tell their story and it turned out to be a beautiful representation of who we are as humans. Regardless of age, gender, race, religion, sexuality, all of the individuals I talked to gave similar answers. The most impactful moments of their lives relied on other humans.

Here are some of the responses I got from the various people I talked to throughout these past few weeks.

What has been the proudest moment in your life?

"It was actually the time my family was denied their visas to come here ... The things is, we were planning on trying to get them here so that we can live together. That way life would be easier for me and for my kids. Finally, it happened that day they were denied and then after a year, they applied again and got their visas."

"My proudest moment would be my daughters graduating from college. It's a long haul. I told them it would go fast and they didn't believe me but I was super proud when they walked across the stage."

What has been the happiest moment of your life?

"So the happiest moment in my life or time frame I think was when we spent six months in Israel. I was going to school over there and we were just exploring the land and hanging out at archeological sites. We were digging at Tel Dor and had a flat in Jerusalem. We were just hanging out in the old city and getting to know the residents, learning Hebrew and traveling. We came back with a lot of new perspective on life and culture."

"My sister [Emily] got married in September of 2017 and it was the best day ever ... but I am really sentimental and really bad with change so it was also really challenging for me as a kind of possessive little sister ... The wedding was in my Uncle's barn and we were all in the barn getting ready. My dad was outside and there was a window looking outside. Emily went outside and I stood and looked through the window. Both of them just started crying and I was balling just because it was this realization of leaving when you're saying goodbye to your dad as a daughter and instead becoming a wife to someone else and making your own family. So it was both the happiest day and the saddest - I can't say sad because it wasn't sad but just bittersweet. That was a huge signifier of change in that relationship."

What has been the thing you value most in life?

"Family ... because they are dear to me and they tell you the truth even when you don't want to hear it."

"So the thing that I most value is everything, every little thing. I feel like I am privileged enough to have these things when there are people that don't even have a little thing. Like education for instance, there are people who don't ever get education. Even though it's hard for me right now to pay the tuition and everything, I am still privileged enough that I am here to do this rather than those people who can only dream of it. So yeah, that's what I value, every little thing."

Those are few stories that were shared with me these past few weeks. They are our stories. The story of us. This is who we are.