Season 1 Ep.9: The One Where I Talk About Myself

This project was a hard one. Not because it was too much work, or putting together the content was too difficult. This project was challenging because my life hit a roadblock. Balancing my stressful home life, on top of the ever-present anxiety of the global pandemic, and completing this project was a struggle. Additionally, I didn’t have enough headspace to complete my project on its original schedule. After returning home to Canada, I was able to take the time to complete the written portion of my assignment. If I were to list my weaknesses when completing the project, they would lack of time-management, lack of confidence in a new writing style, and lack of motivation. My strengths when working through the project were my prior knowledge of the Omeka platform, my welcoming and kind personality, which helped put my participants at ease, and perseverance during a tough time in my life.

Looking back at my interviews, I wish I had thought ahead of time what my “special topic” would be for each conductor. During the interviews with Marg Stubington and Joan Fearnley, the third bog post with a featured topic materialized without much effort as the conductors gravitated toward a specific topic. However, during my interview with Deirdre Kellerman, that did not happen. I regret assuming Deirdre would gravitate toward a topic and not thinking of one when I noticed our interview was running short. In hindsight, I would have asked more questions about Tone Cluster and her experience directing a queer choir as a woman in the LGBTQ+ community.

Creating the blog content for Omeka had many steps. I had first to transcribe my interview recordings in otter.ai, then I went through the transcription, highlighting any section that would be useful. Once going through the interviews, I mapped out my blog content and determined my third topic based on the participant’s main interest. The interviews were more like conversations than a question and answer period, so the large blocks of uninterrupted text were difficult to navigate at first. I wrote the blog posts after outlining their content and uploaded the text to Omeka. Later I created each image as an item in Omeka and added them as content blocks. It was my first time creating pages on Omeka, so it took me a couple of tries before I figured everything out. Altogether, the creation of my Omeka blog was not too time-consuming due to my prior knowledge of the platform.

My experience during this project was largely a positive one. I am glad I chose to engage with choir directors I knew rather than choir directors I have never met. I believe that our pre-established trust meant that our shift to a research-based relationship went smoothly. Thanks to the knowledge and trust we share, I contacted each of them and set up a meeting without any convincing. Furthermore, speaking to Marg, Joan, and Deirdre, was easy for me because I trust THEM. Speaking online and meeting new people can be difficult for me as an introvert, but that anxiety was assuaged when speaking to three amazing people I already know. When I announced my project, my colleagues had plenty of ideas of who I should interview and why, but I’m glad I stood my ground and spoke to my current participants instead of anyone else.

I want to thank Marg Stubington, Deirdre Kellerman, and Joan Fearnley for agreeing to be a part of my research project and being a ray of light in my otherwise dark days. Thank you.