An Account of an Interview with a Short Highlight Reel (I think?)

We have this english assignment.  Well, one beside this.  Wow look at my stellar introduction.  Anyway, we had to interview an adult about their coming of age.  So, one day I came home and said, "Mom, I need to interview you about your childhood for an english assignment."  I can't remember her exact wording, or how quickly she responded, but her response was something like this:

"That sounds horrible."

My wonderful mother <3

That was the end of that for a while.  Until I came home a few days later.  It was Wednesday and the interview transcript was due Friday night.  I wanted to get it done ASAP, so I badgered my mom again.

Her response:

"I don't know what to say about my childhood.  Talk to your dad."

After my mother had eloquently turned me away (Love you Mom! (: <3), my dad came into the kitchen/dining room, where we were having this discussion.  After my mom walked away for a moment, I asked my dad for an interview.  His reply:

"That sounds horrible.  Ask your mom."

Me with my dad

And with that he went on his merry way.  When my mom returned, I explained the situation.  Her response was something to the effect of:

"Well ask him again, I don't know what to say about my coming of age."

Leaving me in a merry little predicament.  Throughout this arduous process, someone (who shall remain unnamed) was offering to answer my questions and as my 35 year old cousin Sarah.  That person was not 35, nor was she named Sarah.

Anyway, when I finally got both my parents in the same room, I demanded that one of them grant me an interview or else I would fail my essay.  At this point, my dad finally relented and drew up a chair across the table from me.  Part One--get someone to talk to me--was complete.  Yay?

I started firing away.  Well, firing away implies I was asking rapidly, but in actuality I was frequently halted by grumblings of the irksomeness of this interview.  Let's look at some of the highlights, shall we?

The Highlight Reel (Does a reel have to be a video?  Oh who cares, I'm calling this section whatever I want cause its my blog post and wow this heading is now really long):

QUESTION THREE: Is it necessary to suffer a loss or disappointment in order to come of age?

My Dad: No.

Me: Can you be more specific?

My Dad: I don't have to be more specific, that is a yes or no question!

And that, my dear readers (I'm talking to the two of you that there are), sets reasonable expectations for the rest of the interview. And given that my mom declined to be interviewed, she was rather keen to interject her views into the conversation. For example, let's examine question ten.

QUESTION TEN: What role does family, education, and religion or other cultural factors play in a child's coming of age?

My Dad: That’s like a ten page essay in itself. How am I supposed to answer that? That's like asking the answer to the universe.

My Mom, interjecting from the kitchen: 42!!!

{insert much cajoling and pleading, along with numerous statements about the stupidity of this interview}

My Dad: Fine. Uhhhh, All those things provide structure and societal norms to influence the decisions that somebody makes when they come of age and get more freedom.

As you can imagine, I cut out the complaints from the final transcript.

Hey look guys I'm over five hundred words. I've also already said the two funniest moments in the interview, so I'm officially done with this short highlight reel (IS IT A REEL?? I AM SO CONFUSED).

UPDATE: I looked up the definition of a reel..............I'm still confused.

Ok, well, moving on.........

In the end, I did actually get answers to my questions, and they showed some interesting things, such as the emphasis my dad put on driving, and how he thought that was different in this modern age due to all the other methods of interaction--hey look that sentence actually discussed the topic of the interview. Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. And on that note, adios my two (maybe one?) reader/readers.

UPDATE: Okay, so I found another definition............it didn't really help. But hey, at least I know the difference between reel and real, which, according to google, is something people look up.