I was nearly brought to tears by one of my respondents this morning. For those of you who don't know, I work as a research assistant and have been interviewing the same students for a study for the past 3 years. As I am graduating in 3 weeks, this round of interviews is my last with these respondents. 

There are certain respondents that I feel a connection with, though I am very careful not to let it interfere with my job. I'm not entirely sure what differentiates them from the others, probably the fact that I've been where they have or sympathize with them. Either way, this girl was one of those respondents.

As we were wrapping up the interview and I was explaining about my leaving and her having a new interviewer next year, she completely surprised me and said one of the sweetest things I've ever been told. The gist of it was "thank you so much for being my interviewer. You are so easy to talk to and it was such a comfort to me when I was a first year. Please let me know when you get into law school. I know that you're going to do great things." I'm not bragging, I'm just truly touched. I thought all I was doing was asking questions... but I supposed that that's what therapists do too. It's just a wonderful feeling to know that I've managed to touch someone without really even trying. I guess maybe it is the little things.