Personal Narrative: Riding My Bike

I grew up in an incredibly small town with a population consisting of less than 27,000 people. I knew we had a few buses, but they were not used often due to the expansiveness of the area. Still, my friends and I rode our bikes all over town weekly encompassing at least 4 miles each day. I never realized how much I use to bike growing up until reflecting upon it. The reason biking was short lived was due to getting my drivers license at 16-year old. I remember having a portable CD player hooked up through the cassette player in my silver 1989 Volvo station wagon also known as my first car. The car was passed down to me from my parents when they elected to get a slightly newer, but still used car. It was in no way cool or hip, but it was the

I will once again begin from a new starting point from where I am or where I will be in a few short weeks. I hope my story gives a map, “a personal tale made public with the intent of inspiring identification among audience members seeking a narrative model to help guide future attitudes and behaviors” (Fox, 2007, p. 8). I take this moment to take a deep breath and relax my muscles in my body, thinking about the uncertainties and fears I began graduate school with. Thinking, would I be able to pass? But I am a bad speller? I could just quit now? These thoughts have faded and been silenced by the pushing forward, always forward; yet reflecting back. Ethnography allows us to be reflexive about our identities to shed light into grief, and through these stories we make sense of the world around us no matter how complex and messy it is (Lindemann, 2013). I have learned so many valuable lessons over the last two years I am not sure where to start my own story of

That is a good start at least. I can proudly and confidently say communication is the study of every day interactions through which we make sense of the world. Said differently, “through communication we create, sustain, fix, and alter the way in which we understand ourselves, others, and how we negotiate worlds together” (Berry, 2012, p. 134-135). I know a theory is simply the explanation of phenomena. I have learned that the ontology one ascribes to is not simply of opinion, but of the assumptions we make and hold true to what makes up realities (Gonzales, 2000). I know the validity or accuracy of qualitative work is how rich, multi-voiced, documented, and reflexive a piece of research