Journal 5: Investigating

You enter the HUB-Robeson Center. It is around 11:30am and you have a short break in between classes. You are in search of one thing: food. As soon as you cross into the building you are slightly overwhelmed by the masses of students. They’re everywhere! Some are frantically printing out a last minute assignment while others sit around the massive TV watching the latest news. You weave your way through the crowds and finally reach your destination: the food court on the first level. With so many options, you can’t go wrong. There’s Chik-fil-a, Nathan’s, sandwiches, soups, salads, and more. You jump into the crowd filing through the turnstile, gaining access to the food court. In your rush you fail to notice the woman standing next to the turnstile. Her name is Debbie and she has been standing there at this time of day consistently for about three weeks now. She smiles and offers a personalized greeting to every individual walking in. Some students acknowledge her with a quick, polite “hello”. Others seem a little more genuine and ask how she is doing. It seems more often than not, the students fail to even take note of her and blindly walk by without so much as a passing glance. This does not seem to deter Debbie though as she does not miss a single person’s happy greeting as they enter her domain. This is the scene of my profile. One that at first glance may seem insignificant in comparison to society’s greater issues. However, if you merely take a second look it is clear to see that these little things, these small interactions with strangers, make up our lives and they are indeed important and worthy of our attention.

I have only had the opportunity to briefly speak with Debbie once. I had to be cleared by her supervisors in order to gain access into not only the inner workings of the food court, but also into Debbie’s personal life. I was absolutely amazed to see how much Debbie opened up to me upon our first meeting. While we waited for her supervisor to come out to talk with me, we chatted. She told me about her son-also a freshman at another school. He is studying Accounting and Business. Debbie’s face swelled with pride as she talked about her son and I soon found out why. Debbie had not gone to College, instead she told me she just “always had wanted to get married and have a family”. As we continued talking the conversation flowed into her own family life. She shared with me that her mother had died when she herself was only 14 years old. She had been at the Y with a friend while her parents were out to Chinese. When her parents came home, her mother had a heart attack and suddenly died. I stood and listened attentively to this woman that had just shared such a personal detail with, in essence, a complete stranger. She told me in regards to her mother’s death that perhaps that is what made her so strong today. We were interrupted by her supervisor but scheduled to meet again Monday morning.

(Although there is only one direct quote above, I thought this paragraph illustrates that I have talked with my subject and scheduled further interviewing)

I have only spoken with Debbie and a couple of her co-workers and supervisors so far. Some seemed standoffish to my idea but Debbie acted more than flattered that I wanted to write about her. My research is primarily hands on, speaking with Debbie and other employees in the HUB’s food court. Since it was a little difficult to gain access to all this, I don’t really have solid outside sources for information yet.

I have kind of redirected by profile from what it was originally meant to be. Initially, I planned to focus on just how Debbie illustrates perfectly how important the little things in life are. Even after only briefly talking with Debbie, it is more than evident that I have found something absolutely extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary. It is for this reason that I want to focus on Debbie’s life. I want to know what brought her to this point in time. I want to know what made her the person she is today. I want to still incorporate the importance of all the little things she does for others and how society needs to recognize that more often but I would like to focus more on Debbie and everything that makes up her life.