For my Erik Erikson interview, I interviewed James Strobl. James is my grandfather, he is 79 years old and is retired in Lawrence, Ks and Yuma, Az. My grandfather is originally from Red Cloud, Nebraska and went to college at University of Nebraska-Omaha. James was a Sergeant in the US army from 1960-1962. He loves watching old John Wayne cowboy movies, eating chocolate chip cookies, and spending time with his family.
When I first started the interview, my question was from the trust v. mistrust category. I asked: In the hardest times of your life, what inspires you to keep going and gives you hope? James reply was, “I like to keep trying, I don’t like to get beaten down on anything. I just keep going trying it out.”. My grandpa is a hard working guy and never gives up on anything he sets his mind to do. Moving to autonomy v. shame and doubt, I asked him what his greatest achievements were and he told me, “Being the director of Watkins Health Center I guess. I didn’t know where I was going to work so I went to business school to get a good job like that. Finishing my masters degree and that let me be qualified candidate for the job.”. My grandpa always loved working at the Watkins Center, in the past he has told me that getting his masters was one of his greatest achievements. When we moved to the initiative v. guilt stage, I asked him what he wanted to to be when he grew up, he said “Well I
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My grandfather’s responses don’t change the way I think of him. I was surprised when he said that retirement was his favorite stage of life just because he has told me about how much fun he had when was in high school. His responses have sorta changed how I want to live my life. He never gives up on anything and that inspired me to do so! It also gave me the interpretation that just because something might not work out, there is other doors open for