SBC TV Network starring me

Monday evening I was somewhat duped into being recorded for a TV segment. The reporter called it a "documentary," but it's hard to tell if he meant it the same way native English speakers mean it.
The story was something like a follow-up to a story done about my birthfamily's restaurant six years ago. When he found out about me, he insisted I be included. I told him that I would prefer not to be on television, but like every other time the word "no" exits my lips, I was ignored. At this point I find myself being too tired to press the issues very often. After the tenth "no," I more or less give up.

So yesterday I found out the story has already aired. A coworker, Edward, came to me and said that his students mentioned seeing me on television. Then tonight, some of my middle school students were excited because they'd seen me on SBC TV.

Apparently it was revealed on the show that my birthfamily's restaurant is worth about $1 million. Everyone seemed quite impressed.

The actual interview for the documentary (Monday) was stressful. The reporter was pushy and incredibly insincere. Any time I felt uncomfortable with something, he'd continue to push. He always referred to my birthparents as "your mother and father." And when he asked me about the racism I experienced growing up in America, he seemed almost disappointed when I reported very little. He rephrased the question a couple times, but when I failed to tell him that I grew up being discriminated against and that America is horrible, he sighed a bit and gave up.

Some other controversial topics were brought to the surface and it made me very uncomfortable.

One somewhat amusing (for me) moment was when they told me to go outside the restaurant for a few minutes. When the reporter called me back in, my birthmother rushed to me with open arms and embraced me, as if she had no idea I was there before. Then she "calls" my birthfather to come out from the kitchen. And although he had been standing there the entire time watching, when the camera focused on him, his eyes opened wide and he said, in surprise, "Laura!"
It was all I could do to keep from rolling my eyes with the camera stuck in my face.

At one point, my hand was near my face. My birthfather took his hand and firmly pushed my hand down. It's a harmless gesture, I suppose. But I've never been one who likes someone physically manipulating my body, even if it's only my hand. I don't like to be touched in any type of forceful or directive way and his doing so has, over the past few months, worn on me.

Lastly, without getting into it too much (at least not now), at one point the reporter disagreed with something I said, saying, "THEY are your family" (referring to my birthfamily).

All in all, it was a stressful interview....but I remembered what I learned in my public relations courses from college, and smiled instead of screaming. That's probably the main P.R. rule....don't break down crying and screaming. Mission accomplished.