Paricipant #7 starts off setting the ground for her narrative with the affirmation that her memory is terrible, as many others have stated before her in this group interview. But almost immediately she goes into detail about the summers she was sent to the Dominican Republic when being a kid. She explains that, even though she was her mother’s only child, this was a sacrifice her mom made for her to enjoy her “free time”, even if she understands that this was a trick – her mom also needed a break from her and enjoy free time. She talks about, how even if her mother had anxiety when making the decision of sending her by herself to the Dominican Republic, she always felt assured because her grandmother would receive her in the airport. Finally, participant #7 talks how being back in the Dominican Republic and seeing how service oriented everyone was, taught her to demonstrate love through acts of service.

Participant #2 starts her narration being clear that her memory is not the best. A quick intervention by participant #6 is heard - trying to make sense of why participant #2’s memory might be limited. After this, the narration continues – Participant #2 let us know that her general understanding on what is love comes from the actions and decisions her parents made in regards to giving the best life possible to her and her sister. She talks about how their parents had to stop pursuing their graduate studies because their priority shifted once they were born. Even if she does not understand the position in general – she tells us she is not thinking about having children of her own- she sees that as what love should be. She tells us that her understanding is that of sacrifice and collective ownership; but says it has been unsuccessful for her since men usually do not have the same understanding of mutual sacrifice.

Participant number 4 recalls her first memory of love to be the moments in her childhood when her mother would get her ready for school. She narrated how, still today, mornings are difficult, and she cannot become functional until later during the day. Her mom, with kindness and care, would help remind her the importance of education and the importance of getting up early to start her day, while the participant was still half asleep. She then connects to Participant 3’s narration around physical affection – saying that her own family is also “clingy” and because of this she understands herself to be clingy too. The participant makes notice of how culturally this has been something she saw might not be normal across the board since her partner, who is not Dominican, sometimes does not understand her way of expressing love. She makes it clear that she also believes that there is an urgency and necessity of expressing love in the moment and being vocal with feelings since “you never know what is going to happen later”.

Participant number 3 was the first one to answer the question “What is your first memory of love, and how has this shaped how you love?”. The narrative that the participant brought up was those moments of intimacy and connection she had with her grandmother. These moments happened whenever there would be electrical outages in the Dominican Republic – a disruption within “everyday life” and which had the participant thinking there was “nothing to do”. The participant reminisces how her grandmother, who interestingly was blind, would tell her stories and riddles whenever these outages happened all while she rested her head on her thighs. The participant then talks about how her family on her mother’s side is close knit and, for some, clingy, because of the physicality on their demonstration of love. The participant understands that, because of this, she looks for these things in a partner and desires to be the same way with her future children.