The Experience of Waiting

Abstract

Researchers’ experiences as narrative inquirers remind them that stories are important; they sustain and remind people that lives are lived, told, retold, and relived in storied ways. Stories are what people know, how people know, and stories are how people live. Stories are people’s obligation to others, and stories create obligations for these authors as researchers. There are two starting points for narrative inquiry: listening to individuals tell their stories and living alongside participants in the field. It is the living alongside our participants that the authors attend to in this article. To be able to live alongside participants requires researchers to engage in research in profoundly relational ways and calls forth their long-term relational responsibilities.