Normally when I get a friend or relation of mine in the newspaper, I feel like I am doing a good deed by recognizing their achievements.
But today, Mary came to the house with only complaints.
"She called and said we could do the interview today or tomorrow."
"That must have been inconvenient for you," said my mother.
"It's like she didn't even give me a choice if I could do the interview or not!" Mary exclaimed.
"You know," I said, "we are given our assignments on Tuesday and we are expected to have them finished by Friday. So, it really was today or tomorrow."
"That's not my fault!"
"But was it really that painful for you? I mean it's more inconvenient for us if we don't get the interview because that means we piss off our editor, and get a sizable chunk out of our paycheck."
"Still it's not her fault," my mom said.
"Well it sounds kind of pathetic," I said.
"And then when she did the interview, she didn't even ask me questions. She just told me to talk about it, she didn't even ask me anything interesting."
"She didn't ask you any questions?" I asked skeptically.
"She was just like 'talk about it'. I bet she is only going to put in the dumb things I said," Mary said.
"Why would she do that?"
"Well people always get me wrong in papers," she said.
I rolled my eyes.
"All she could say was 'what was your first impression?' 'what was the food like?'"
"Those sound like questions to me," I murmured.
"It would have probably been better if she did the interview in person, but, then again, I wouldn't have wanted to actually go somewhere for it."
I had to leave the room. After being editor for my high school yearbook, working for a newspaper for an upwards of 6 months, and conducting over a 100 interviews, I had experienced almost every annoyance imaginable. And Mary named almost every one of them.
First off, people treat me like my time is meaningless. I normally have a three to four day window to do multiple interviews, cover events, and write the assignments. And during the school year, I have an even smaller time window. Which means, the time we agreed on to do the interview is the time we need to do it. One time I scheduled a video interview with a group of people at my school. It was after school and I had planned to meet them in the parking lot. They said "fuck it" and left before I had time to walk there. Another time, I was scheduled to interview a kid going to military school. He delayed the interview 3 hours so he could sleep in before his work out.
Secondly, people take it as a personal affront when we make a slight mistake. I remember multiple people coming up to me the day the yearbooks were distributed to tell me about minor mistakes. One kid complained that I got his bible verse for a senior quote wrong (4:11, not 5:11). All I could picture, when he told me, were the little scraps of paper people submitted their senior quotes on, and a yearbook staffer having to sift through and hand type each one. One girl bitched me out on facebook for quoting her badly. The words from her lips, in the interview, were "If you don't have a tan, you don't have a chance". I didn't get one syllable wrong.
And thirdly, people think we are responsible for you talking eloquently. You saying something dull like "the experience was great", is not my fault. Normally, in that instance, I follow up with "why was it great?" and if you answer "I can't find the words to describe it" then it really is your fault. You are in an interview for christ sakes, you find the words. If you answer "I don't know" or "um sure" to every question then you won't sound that enlightening. All I can do is fluff up my descriptive prose, but otherwise it is you hanging dry. Also, if you are in an interview and the journalist doesn't ask the perfect question to what you are thinking, then just say it!
But I will say, in contradiction to my complaints above, I have met wonderful people through my interviews. Most people are thankful and eager to tell their story, and help me along the way. A kid at my school committed suicide this year, and through my interviews with his friends, I learned what kind of beautiful person he was. I talked to a local strawberry farmer, who took me with him on his land and gave me one of my most entertaining interviews to date. I interviewed a daughter and mother about a mission trip they went on, and although I didn't agree with the objectives of the mission trip, they still sent me a pie, a hand-made purse, a note, and multiple voice mails to express their gratitude for being interviewed.
I will keep writing and interviewing, but hell people! Get some manners!
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