Interviewing My Parent

I am submitting this paper to describe my experience with a school project.

The project was to interview a parent to find your identity.
I chose to interview my father. Being able to interview my father was a great way for me to learn more about him.

After every question I asked him, he did not hesitate to answer. This gave me a signal that he is comfortable with the conversation. I was least comfortable when I was asking his opinions on current events.
I felt this way because I could not tell him what I thought.

I thought it was a challenge to ask him questions without pausing for at least 2 seconds.
I was nervous about the interview. I could not get the wording of my questions correctly. While I was interviewing my father, I had questions written in my notebook.
I planned to ask questions about his childhood and the transition of coming from Guatemala to America. Further into the interview, I came up with questions on my own and I hardly used the notebook. I would recommend having questions to ask before the interview so that it would not be awkward.

I felt nervous and I would not have known what to ask. This way, others would learn more about things that they are interested in talking about with their parents. His reactions were interesting.

He was surprised that I was asking questions that I never had before, mostly because we do not talk very much. When he said a word, he said it with a sense of joy. It was almost as if he was a little kid back in Guatemala.

I wrote his words down verbatim.
Even if I wanted to change it, I would keep the words the same as he said it. He would always look up instead of looking me in the eye.

I think the reader would experience the interview well based on the gestures that he presented.

My attention was always on my father. I was in the moment and I wanted to learn more.
I asked him questions after the timer was done. When he was talking about how he immigrated, I asked him how he felt about immigrants in America. I asked this later in the interview to show him I knew what he was saying.

I think that when I connected a follow up question to my personal situations, I obtained more information from my father. Immigration was a theme that popped into my head as I was transcribing. My father was young when he came to America.
He did not know what he wanted to do in his home country before.
He stated that he is more of an American than a Guatemalan.

This shows that transitioning from one country to another can change a person at a young age.

I think that his decision to work hard in school was because he wanted a better future for himself and his family.

He did not finish college but he is happy working on customer service in the Bank of New York Mellon.
This project changed the way I look at my father.

It had a positive effect for me because I learned a lot about him.