Life History Interview Research Paper

This reflection paper is based on the life history interview conducted on me and a 78-year-old woman who is soon going to celebrate her 79th birthday on Sep 21st. I would call her with a fictitious name “Smita” in the entire paper to maintain and protect her privacy. The interview was about our life. It was divided into six major life categories: childhood, adulthood, identity, the present, aging, and life lessons. Having an opportunity to interview a 78-year-old woman and writing this reflective paper about the life history and experiences had made me realize that I have a lot to learn about the stages of human life. Every individual lives are different and it varies tremendously. As an interviewee my goal was to collect the details of life, different stories, and experiences that makes our life unique from the rest of the people.

We had many common things. We both were born and brought up in the same city in the big house with siblings. Both being youngest were very pampered. And we were the most liked person in our family too. We both are very close to our family and are still in touch with our immediate relatives. Although we grew up in different era, we both were brought up with similar set of traditional

I am more of an outgoing and extrovert person and one of my best quality is, I can communicate with people from different backgrounds. Smita mentioned that the she is a shy person and would hesitate to open up to strangers. Smita was an obedient child who could not go against the wishes of her family and elders. I was a pampered child and I would go sometimes against my family wishes like for example Smita mentioned that she had an arranged marriage and she had never met her husband till the day of the marriage. I had met my husband before marriage and although there was some initial opposition from my family against my choice, I was adamant and finally managed to convinced