“I Built My Own Planetarium In My Backyard”
Frank Kovac and I have a lot in common. We both like Planetariums. I like them more for just relaxing; because I believe that there is nothing more relaxing than kicking back in a warm room and watching a beautiful night sky. He was once a young kid who just wanted to look at the moon through a telescope, but he couldn’t because it was cloudy. He felt that that was just wrong so he began to work on building a planetarium. He succeeded and has gone down in history as the man who made the largest rotating-globe planetarium in the entire world. After I finished listening to his podcast I remember thinking that I wouldn’t mind hanging out with this man. We have even more in common than just a fascination with planetariums; he is also horrible at math. So much so that he couldn’t fulfill his dream of one day being an astrophysicist; instead he decided to build his very own planetarium in his backyard. The podcast drew me in, because the story is just so fantastic and real too. It’s all about an average Joe that broke all the rules and lived his dreams despite what he was supposed to do. I respect that and agree with what he did. Instead of sitting down and learning math he went ahead and blazed his own path to success, which is pretty impressive.
Those of you who are lucky enough to hear this podcast will be willed forward to break a few rules and live your dream no matter what obstacles fall in your way. He says the clouds blocked his view and, while most of us would just give up and go back inside, he stayed at it until he could see the sky and stars and moon no matter what the weather. It’s flat out impressive. He is a trailblazer and inspirational as well.
Hearing a story is different than reading a story, because the listener gets to better know the person the story is about, especially if the story is read by the person. In Frank Kovac’s case it was both and I felt as if I actually got to know him. There is something a bit revealing about hearing the person’s voice. The listener can kind of paint the picture of what the person looks like based on the voice the listener hears. In my case I could see a picture of the person, Frank Kovac, so I already knew what he looked like. Personally, I think there is something personal about reading the story yourself, opposed to having it read to you. I much prefer reading it myself, because as I drift off into reading I can picture the character clearer in my head and can hear different voices and let the story carry me off. That’s the fun part, but to have someone read it to me sort of deletes the fun part and I’m left with just the story and my imagination sort of just fades out as the singular person’s voice dominates. The voice shatters the dream-like state that reading puts me in in the first place.
Seeing as Storycorps.com likes to keep things in or around 3 minutes I would focus on how I got my first book published and the troubles that went along with it. I would talk about what the story was and why it isn’t in print any longer. And I would also include a segment about how I handled critics.
Please Visit http://www.storycorps.com to listen to Frank’s Story and others’ Stories as well.
marvinhollon 