When I was working on my MA thesis, I had to interview several people who knew my subject well: some across the country, some relatively locally. Some were colleagues and some were her family. My interviews were loosely structured to allow each person to talk; to give them time to remember this woman who died in 1968.
During one personal interview, it became so intense that the 70 year old gentleman started to cry. He was remembering some very precious moments with this woman—his mother. It shook me because I hadn't meant to upset him, but he wasn't upset- just surprised that he remembered something that happened when he was only 9 or 10.
Despite the two years, it took to write this project, thanks to lots of transcription and writers block, I woke up one morning at 3 AM realizing it lacked a conclusion-. Why did I wake up? I had been dreaming that I was writing the conclusion. Getting up at 4 AM, I immediately fired up the computer and whipped it out in 45 minutes. Within less than 2 weeks, I got everything together: edits, photos and submitted the thesis. The book sailed through thesis committee on the first try with only 2 punctuation changes-- additions of commas.
To me--- that was a rockstar moment--walking away with only 2 changes to make -- that I did on the spot,
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