12 Questions

Years ago, Mark and I watched a Russian film called "Anna." Across the span of 13 years, noted director Nikita Mikhalkov (who won an Oscar® for Burnt by the Sun) secretly filmed his daughter Anna (the USSR prohibited it) in what eventually became an incredible documentary. Every year Mikhalkov would ask Anna the same five questions, and eventually these casual interviews became a stunning look at not only young Anna, but the changing country as well. Anyway, we liked the film, but more so, we loved the idea of yearly interviews to capture our young, growing family. We started our own project in 2004. Eleanor was 3-yrs-old, Ada only 1. Mark was in his second year of grad school; I was an overwhelmed mother of a very precocious toddler, my Dad was about to go to prison, life as I knew it was ever changing....

First, we came up with 12 questions, the same 12 questions we still use today:

1. What makes you happy?

2. What makes you sad?

3. What are you most afraid of?

4. What is your favorite food?

5. What is your favorite TV show/movie?

6. What do you like to listen to?

7. Who do you consider your friend?

8. What keeps you busy?

9. What is your favorite thing to do?

10. What do you want to be when you grow up?

11. What is the best thing you did this year?

12. What is the hardest thing you did this year?

Well, we just finished our sixth year of interviews and really, it's one of my favorite things we do, bringing with it the same benefits some of you surely experience with journal keeping. I love to see the changes and the consistencies, everything that makes up our growing family and the living, breathing people inside of it. Some things never change, like Mark's favorite food: Woodstock's pizza, and what makes me happy: evenings with Mark. Some friends have stayed the same, but many no longer make it on to the paper. Sad. But some things have changed. In 2004 Mark said he wanted to teach Russian literature when he grew up. Well, six years later that's exactly what he's doing. Yahhhh, Mark! And in 2004, the hardest thing Eleanor did was potty training, whereas in 2009, it was braces and level 4 Math.

So, when I look at six years, captured on papers in a manila envelope, I see how fast it's really going, and that we're capable of hard things, and the highs of good times and accomplishments seem evermore obvious and encouraging.