Who the Heck are You?

In the third quarter we interviewed people who we chose. This particular interview is called “Who the Heck are You?” In this interview we interviewed anyone we wanted. I choose Jessica, my Chinese tutor, I wanted to know more about her and what college was like since she just got out of college.There was a couple of steps to this interview… The first step is writing a letter. We all wrote a letter to our person asking if we could interview them. After we wrote the letter we listed ten or more questions to ask during our interview. Of course they won’t always say yes, so we were prepared and wrote our top five people who we also wanted to interview. Here are my questions,

1. What is college like?
2. Who is your role model? Why?
3. What did you want to be when you were a kid? Why?
4. What is your heritage?
5. What was your major and why did you choose it?
6. If you could go back in time to 6th grade what advice would you give your 6th grade self?
7. What made you want to start dancing?
8. What do you want to be? Considering that you will be too old to do dance. Why?
9. What did you do to get into such a good college?
10. What were some of the hardest things you had to deal with?

I think the questions turned out really well. I really liked the answer to, “If you could go back in time to 6th grade what advice would you give your 6th grade self?” Here is my interview-

I actually really liked my interview, I think it turned out really great. I thought that it was really fun and it got to know much more about her. I am glad that I chose Jessica to be my interviewee she had a-lot of helpful comments and I liked knowing how it was like for her when she was my age and how college was like. I got her to say things that she wouldn’t say usually.

Once we did the interview we followed the directions to a doc called “Interviews and Ideas Template (Step 2)”. This doc helps you put down your ideas in four parts. It helps you organize it into four parts. This template helps you with your final piece. It is just notes but helps you get the outline of your final. It first asks you to jot down a few quotes that you really like, or are interesting. Right after that, it has the begging. In the begging you try grab the readers attention so that they read on. You should always had a grabber statement which is the very first sentence. For example: “Are you trying to find out who you are? Well, read on and you’ll find Jessica’s story of finding out who she really is, in college.” Try to grab your reader attention. There’s also the middle and the end. In the middle, you have the bulk. The bulk has all interesting information. It also has the most. In the end, you can end with your favorite part of the interview. For example I ended with my favorite quote, “Don’t let your happiness be in the hands of someone else.”

After we have finished part 2 we started on our final piece. The final has all the steps put together into one doc. It has been peer/self edited. This is my final doc:

Are you trying to find out who you are? Well, read on and you’ll find Jessica’s story of finding out who she really is, in college. “It’s a great time to explore things that you’re interested about, exploring yourself, even.” Jessica Li is a professional dancer in New York City. In this interview, you could learn some advice from her, for living life. Jessica has lots of wisdom to share even though she is only twenty three years old.

Jessica is my Chinese tutor or teacher. I really enjoy having her as a teacher, I always have fun in our classes and I learn much from her. Jessica is now one of my new role models! Jessica is from Concord, Massachusetts. She grew up in America but her parents are Chinese and spoke Mandarin with her when she was growing up. So she grew up bilingual. While Jessica was in college, she found dance when she was twenty years old. Jessica describes it as a total accident. She once stepped into a social class where she learned some dance moves, and started to love it. She started taking it very seriously and found it to be her new passion.

If she hadn’t discovered that class, she wouldn’t be here doing what she does now. “After I discovered dance, it was very clear to me that all the other things that I was doing (that I was pursuing) because I thought that I was, you know, “passionate” about them, all of those things paled in comparison to dance.” Jessica had many other passions that she was pursuing that she felt, were going to be her future. To put it into a shorter way, Jessica is saying, don’t assume your first passion will become your future. You may find something that inspires you even more than your passion now. So Jessica came to pursue her dream, and that is why she is here in New York, dancing.

Jessica worked very hard in school and managed to get into the highly respected college, Harvard.“Throughout my Middle School and High School career I basically put everything that I had into whatever I was interested in and made sure if I had a goal, that I did everything in my power to reach that goal and produce a result and I think that’s what really helped me get into college. These people at Harvard could see that I not only did I have a  passion but that I had the ability to make my goals into reality.” Jessica grew up in a predominantly white community and when she was a kid she was very isolated because she was one of the only Asian people who were living there. Even though people were picking on her, Jessica put everything into her dreams and worked very hard to get into such a good college. Harvard saw that Jessica’s ambition about her goals were very powerful, and that drove her to accomplish her objectives. Jessica had many dreams, many passions that she was very passionate about. She chose dance over more traditional careers because she chose to follow what she wanted to do the most. What she loved. Even though it was a very difficult path or career that is hard to succeed at.

“Don’t let your happiness be in the hands of someone else,” said Jessica. This quote inspires me to live life happily. Whenever I am worried I can look back at this quote and be reminded to think about what’s important in life and what’s not. Jessica is an inspiring and interesting person and the words she speaks moved me. I learned that age does not equal wisdom. Even though Jessica is only twenty three she may have more wisdom than someone older than her. Jessica was picked on because she is Asian but she somehow overcame it through her own internal beliefs. Because Jessica is also Chinese, she is a good role model to me and I admire her more because she succeeded despite the racism she experienced. Jessica taught me that the world is large and I can exist in at least two different worlds. I am very grateful that I can live in an American world and a Chinese world.

I had a lot of fun doing this and I hope that we soon get to do another interview project!