First March Post

In my latest visits to RISSE, I’ve been homing in on the kids I’m most interested in observing and writing about. They are all in a friend group with each other, as it turns out, and a large part of what is so compelling to me about them is not just the kids themselves but their interactions with each other. It’s also fun for me to stir the conversational pot with them because often fascinating stuff comes out; I’ve been surprised at the reactiveness and insightfulness that often follows when I say something like, “What do you think happens after you die?” or “Do you think God is a man or a woman?”

What’s interesting too about this kind of prompting on my part is that I am involved in the production of the material; I’m definitely not just a fly on the wall, which I think is actually right in any kind of scenario in which I spend a prolonged amount of time with my subjects. Over this time I will undoubtedly form relationships with them, and therefore it just feels disingenuous to deny my part in any storytelling about them.

I’ve started to type up funny moments and quotes from the kids on my phone in the moment they happen, which has also helped me organize the notable events of my visits later when I write them up. It can feel a little awkward, but these kids know what I’m there to do (or at least have been told) so it doesn’t really feel worse than that.

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