What is a story?

A story is a telling of events that describes a happening or teaches a lesson. That's the big poofy textbook answer anyway. Honestly I think a story can be anything you want it to be. No need to over analyze it. To the contrary, I feel that if you HAVE to analyze it to understand what was going on, it was a bad story. Impressions and realizations should be natural and intuitively woven into the narrative. If you end a book and can't tell someone with confidence what you just read ("It was about a farm! I think.....") then the author took "subtle" too far. It's easy to forget that your audience doesn't know all the tiny tidbits about your character that you've kept off page. Tidbits that explain certain things-  

And you know what? I'm rambling. 

A story is a retelling of events or a crafted work to teach a lesson. Or on a non text book note, to share a world or idea.

A story is a good story if you enjoy it. End of discussion.