Interviewing

I was recently interviewed. Being interviewed online via email is an interesting proposition: all the questions are usually rendered beforehand, making the interview more of a test or a MadLib than a conversation. It usually feels like you’re talking to a wall. Ideas don’t develop very well, they don’t flow anywhere. If conversations flow like rivers, this is hanging out in the kiddie pool.

Then, every once in a while you’re thrown a curve. Witness:

I like _____________________ .

I love _____________________ .

I want _____________________ .

I was _____________________ .

I am _____________________ .

I will _____________________ .

I think _____________________ .

I know _____________________ .

A cute format, to be sure, but an even greater challenge to say something coherent. (Assuming that’s something you even want.) So, I considered it a bit of a challenge, a little framework to maybe say something worthwhile, and a way to have a bit of fun friction in the creative process.

I like it when forgotten things fall out of old books.

I love when strangers accidentally start walking in step.

I want to notice the small things. I want to remember them.

I was thinking to myself, “How do we know what to forget? Do we really know what’s important?”

I am still thinking about that.

I will write it down in my journal. “Figure out what’s important.” There.

I think, “Maybe we can’t know.”

I know, I know.