Changed by the people I interview

For me, the real joy of being a journalist is that people will talk to you about virtually anything. There is an unspoken understanding, whether they resent you or respect you, that they must speak with you -- that it’s to their benefit to speak with you.

Sometimes I feel as if I have an alter ego, my reporter persona that absorbs information but does not react. When I conduct interviews in person for feature articles, I try to be as small as possible and let my subject be big. I don’t like to spar with sources; I prefer to observe them. I think it makes for more honest reporting.

At the end of the day, I shed the reporter mask and become myself again, with my ego and my judgment. The people that I meet and interview -- the slices of their lives that I witness and the opinions they share -- enrich my real life and affect my view of the world.

Some people impress me with their warmth or their knowledge; other people disturb me with their bigotry and suspicion. But with every interview, my world gets bigger and bigger.

-- Gina Ferrer, University of California-Santa Cruz, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.