1. I think for my topic an interview will be the perfect way to gather details I can’t remember myself. Since my topic is so personal it means a lot that there are people in my life who shared a similar experience. Since my topic relates closely to children and the ways in which they are affected by tragedy, and the ways in which we can promote kindness & empathy in dark times; I chose to interview the person who did that for me, my mom. Since my knowledge of the time immediately after 9/11 is so limited it is important for me to gain insight on what life was like following the attacks. More specifically, I’d like to ask my mom if she remembers how adults explained what had happened across the river to their children, and if she ever wondered how 9/11 might affect the ways I grew up. Additionally, I intend to ask my mom if she noticed any prejudice or islamophobia increases immediately after 9/11, and if she noticed anyone trying to stop it.
2. The purposes of my interview are to gain additional valuable information on my question, include a new perspective in my insights, and learn more about my cultural identity. It isn’t enough to rely upon my identity to answer the questions I have about my topic, and it is important that my question is answered to the fullest extent. The interview will provide background on my topic, and increase the brevity of my final results.
3. In order to ensure that the interview answers questions that are related to my topic I need to focus on topics relevant to my ideas. During the interview I hope to focus on the effects of tragedy on adults, how they educated their children after the attacks, racism & prejudice in the years following, and how adults believe the attacks affected the next generation of children. These topics will answer the remainder of questions I have on my question, and create chances to answer new ones that I haven’t thought of.
4. The interviewee in this case is my mother, Morgan. She is more than qualified to answer these questions as she lived in New York for a decade before and after 9/11, and saw firsthand how terror changed our city. I truly believe I get my empathy from her, and it is because of that empathy that I chose to ask these questions in the first place. Besides being a longtime New Yorker, my mother worked at a company that was originally in the south tower, and she had many friends who passed during the attacks.
5. As her son I guess I have the perk of being able to contact the perfect source for my topic at all times. I will most likely end up calling or facetiming my mother in order to complete our interview. She has worked full time as a single mom since I was five, and I don’t want to take time out of the limited amount she has to relax in order to ask her loaded questions about 9/11. I don’t think these decisions will have any impact at all on the outcome of my interview, and I don’t believe there is much that could affect the telling of a story this personal.
6. My roll as the interviewer is limited, as I am simply the student learning from the experiences of someone far more knowledgeable than myself. My mother’s role is the interviewee, or in this case a New York historian.
7. Some unexpected events that could prevent me from fulfilling all the goals of the interview are mostly related to the questions I ask, and the ways in which my mother chooses to answer them. There is always a chance that the interviewee could go off topic, or bring up something related to the question that may not provide the details I am looking for. If this or something similar were to happen I would simply remind my mom that I need to focus on the specifics of my question.