“She Gets Me”: Forming a Friendship from a Place of Vulnerability

ABSTRACT

Becoming familiar with strange, new surroundings is an overwhelming process. Every time we enter into the field for the first time, anxieties arise. Sometimes, in reflection, we come to learn that others whom we view as our participants experience similar feelings of uncertainty. From the perspective of the researcher, we continually reflect upon co-constructed meanings we create with others from lived experiences in an effort to produce knowledge during the research process. Even though the outside observer is welcomed in, practitioners fear the presence of another who is there to critique their work, unaware that the researcher, herself, shares this fear. This essay aims to expose how we live and share meanings of vulnerability between a practitioner and a researcher and how these reflections enable friendships to form beyond the field.