ValidityThreats?

Something I never anticipated is happening. I knew going in to this project that I loved the GS deeply and profoundly. I knew I had an emotional connection to this school and therefore to this project. However, I did not think that transcribing interviews would involve any emotional attachment. I actually thought the transcriptions would be the most boring part of the research. But with each transcription, I get more and more emotional. Hearing the voices of people I have come to consider my family makes me want to break down and just bawl. I know it’s silly—it’s not like they’ve died, I can always call or email them—but it’s just not the same. Being together, living on a hall together, is an experience that can’t be replicated when we’re flung all over the United States and Europe. I miss those seven weeks of camaraderie and family the entire rest of the year, but for some reason it’s tougher this time around. I can usually get over missing GS so much by putting it away in a corner of my mind for several months. I can’t do that now. Every day that I work on this project I am reminded of how happy this place makes me, how dear my colleagues are to me, and how it will be another year before the magic can happen again. I know it’s maudlin and not my usually cynical self, but it’s there. I’ve got to figure out how to deal with this feeling, if it is a validity threat, but I don’t know where to begin.