Gedanken: Capturing the Thoughts of the People Around Me
One of the questions I field most frequently when I tell people that I'm going abroad for a year is, "How does _________ feel about it?" More often than not, people fill in the blank with "your parents" or "your boyfriend" and I'm never really sure how to answer. I know the people around me are excited for me and will miss me, but I'm not them, I don't know exactly how they would respond to being asked directly.
After inadequately trying to answer this question about a hundred times, I realized that I really do want to know what the people close to me think and that I should showcase their thoughts here. I realized, generally speaking, that the thoughts and feelings of family and friends take up significant mental space when you're trying to make big decisions, and my decision to participate in CBYX was no exception. So, in the interest of thoroughly documenting my own experience, I figured I had to start documenting thoughts of my upcoming year abroad belonging to people other than myself--at least the important ones, anyway.
I wrestled with a few different ways of recording and publishing what those close to me had to say. I could interview them and summarize their answers, or make videos/audio files of the interviews and insert them into posts--I figured this might more accurately capture their reactions to my questions. I quickly remembered, however, that my dad has allowed only 1 photo of him to be taken in the past 5 years, and that any recording equipment I have would be considered sub-par at best. I decided instead to send out emails with quick questionnaires prompting them to answer my questions at their leisure. This method (should) allow their exact thoughts to be heard in exactly the way they decide to tell it.
I'll be posting their responses as they send them to me in a series I've decided to call "Gedanken." It's a German word that means, simply, "thoughts," which I thought would be slightly more interesting than titling it the same the but in English.
All in all, I hope this little attempt at capturing perspectives beyond my own will shed some light on the impact CBYX has on the totality of a participant's life. Needless to say, I'm excited to hear what my family and friends have to say, and I'm sure they will only help fuel my excitement for my upcoming year.
After inadequately trying to answer this question about a hundred times, I realized that I really do want to know what the people close to me think and that I should showcase their thoughts here. I realized, generally speaking, that the thoughts and feelings of family and friends take up significant mental space when you're trying to make big decisions, and my decision to participate in CBYX was no exception. So, in the interest of thoroughly documenting my own experience, I figured I had to start documenting thoughts of my upcoming year abroad belonging to people other than myself--at least the important ones, anyway.
I wrestled with a few different ways of recording and publishing what those close to me had to say. I could interview them and summarize their answers, or make videos/audio files of the interviews and insert them into posts--I figured this might more accurately capture their reactions to my questions. I quickly remembered, however, that my dad has allowed only 1 photo of him to be taken in the past 5 years, and that any recording equipment I have would be considered sub-par at best. I decided instead to send out emails with quick questionnaires prompting them to answer my questions at their leisure. This method (should) allow their exact thoughts to be heard in exactly the way they decide to tell it.
I'll be posting their responses as they send them to me in a series I've decided to call "Gedanken." It's a German word that means, simply, "thoughts," which I thought would be slightly more interesting than titling it the same the but in English.
All in all, I hope this little attempt at capturing perspectives beyond my own will shed some light on the impact CBYX has on the totality of a participant's life. Needless to say, I'm excited to hear what my family and friends have to say, and I'm sure they will only help fuel my excitement for my upcoming year.
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