This is not so much as a single incident, but more of many conversations I’ve had over my lifetime that lead me to want to do this project. During these conversations, I would hear stories and pick up on pieces of advice that I wish others could hear. I think that people from older generations have so much that they can teach younger generations but because we have such a shorter attention span, we can’t handle the thought of sitting down for twenty minutes with them, no matter how important it may be to your parents. My plan is to interview the senior class’s grandparents in hopes of learning something to put our experiences in perspective, give us useful tips and tricks of the trade of being a kid, and finally, give our grandparents a platform in which they can give funny or serious anecdotes, whether it be a minute or an hour long. People will be able to see their grandparents (or parents) from a whole new perspective.

 

I’ve always loved hearing stories of others as they often make me laugh because they were told from someone looking back on a time that may have seemed overwhelming or trying at the time, but now simply feel silly and ridiculous. Whatever the case, each story we hear and tell and the ways and spaces in which we reflect on such memories have always been of a higher fascination of mine. Interviewing someone in a way so the interview-ee feels comfortable enough to honestly think about how they can share their story with someone who will listen, and asking simple questions to pull out details that one wouldn’t think to be intrusive, but rather complementary or interesting for them to answer as well. The trick of the trade seems to always be how to get someone to expand and answer to their fullest ability.

 

“My purpose is to help people mature into their best selves by communicating with others of older generations and have reflected on they’ve become so that the impact of younger generations can be stronger because of what they’ve learned.”

I changed it a little. I think I’m still working on the exact wording and more concise ways of saying everything I want to say, but this is what I’ve got so far.

 

After each recorded interview, I plan to post them on some sort of digital platform where people can access them and reflect on how their parents or grandparents have helped them grow into who they want to be, and how these stories of others can shed light on what is happening now in all of our lives. I hope people will walk away from these videos after thinking about what they just heard, and if they learned anything from these videos, to comment on them, ask another question, or simply have a conversation with someone provoked by what they’ve just listened to. I think that people can help me simply by doing all of the things above. Responding to and interacting with the knowledge they might not have heard or gotten from anyone in the past. That is my hope.