The assignment of the week for our blogging workshop was going out and interviewing someone that we didn’t know. When I first thought about the assignment, I thought it would be pretty fun: finding some stranger and talking to them. Then I let some petty worry creep in about it. I also thought this was an especially important assignment for me since I’m a part of the media team, and will be doing things exactly like this next year. I also was pretty confident that I could do this assignment. Four or five years ago, I probably wouldn’t have been that confident, but I am older now and I’d like to think I’m more mature. I also thought about the short stint I had as a newspaper reporter in February, and yet again kinda laughed to myself at the way that God has taken that short and random experience and turned it into practical and useful stuff that is already coming in handy now with this trip.
I decided to either find someone at the video store or the grocery store that I worked at in the spring. And for some reason I had this vague picture in my head of me talking to someone in the back of the store. I ended up going to the grocery store and the first person that I saw (in the back of the store mind you) other than employees that I knew, was a middle aged woman looking at something at the end of the aisle. I walked up to her and asked her if I could interview her for a few minutes, and explained a little about why I wanted to interview her. She said she was willing if I was willing to walk with her as she continued to shop. So we walked and talked.
Her name is Diana, and she’s lived here in Hillsdale for 30 some years. She’s married to a guy named Randy, and is the mother of three boys ranging from 9 years old to 20.
Her favorite foods are pasta and Mexican. “I always vote for Mexican places when we all go out to eat.”
Despite living on about three acres out in the country, she said she enjoys boating on their new boat that matches their Jeep. She went on to say, “the boys have four-wheelers and things, so they’re usually pretty busy outside with their dad.”
She was born in Germany, and traveled and moved around a lot while she was growing up due to her father being a recruiter with the military. She still loves to travel with her family even today. They’ve gone to a lot of places together, such as Florida and Niagara Falls. Her nine year old son that was with her during part of the interview said that he too is already anxious to travel and move on from Hillsdale.
Despite some sporatic jobs earlier in her adult life, like day care and factory work, she seems proud and very content with having been a stay at home mom and housewife for the past 20 years or so. Her proudest accomplishment in life has been raising her 3 boys and that they’ve turned out to be great kids.
During the interview she ended up talking to a friend that passed by about her middle son that was beat up at school recently. She told me about it too, and her son apparently is very interested in a certain girl that is a couple years younger. Well, the girls brother doesn’t like that very much, and thought that he needed to beat up Diana’s son. So he did, but her son did not fight back at all. And she was very proud of that.
She was a very nice lady, is very devoted to her family and was a great person to interview. I gave her my prayercard/business card for this trip, and because of her traveling experience she seemed rather interested The World Race.
Overall, this was a very good assignment and experience. It went really well. I did however realize something this morning that I neglected to do: I DIDN’T TAKE A PICTURE OF HER! Here I am a photographer, and I totally didn’t even think of taking a picture of the person I interviewed. D’OH!
If you read this Diana, thank you for letting me interview you.
