On my way to work on Monday, someone caught up to me when I was walking at a fast clip across Cambie Bridge. He introduced himself as Colin and I thought he said he’s a photographer and he asked if he could include me in his project, one I’d never heard of before. It’s not dark at 7:40 in the morning, someone is bound to come up from behind or ahead and I’m not exactly the desirable demographic to kidnap so I agreed.
Since January 1 this year, Colin has been working everyday at his new project, The Stranger Project 2014, where he aims to talk to and document his conversation with one stranger per day. Since I met him on January 20, that would make me #20. Local news outlets have covered his project by the time he has been two weeks in (Global News, CTV News). I must not have hesitated too much about having my photo taken and agreeing to participate and we spent the back 15 minutes of my walk to work with him getting to know me.
Colin leads the conversation with get-to-kn0w you questions like how long you’ve been in Vancouver, a little about your family, a query of what you do for a living and a focus on hobbies. I tried to make sure that I didn’t reveal too much – what would my mother or NPY not be pleased to read about on some public Facebook page? I wanted to share my tech-geeky side (because that’s cool and all) and that probably came through because we talked about podcasts and I was honestly listening to a the BCC Documentary Archive podcast “Boy for Rent” [mp3]. How salacious!
It certainly made my day. As the little social media/blogging nut that I am, I’m happy to help him with his project, follow it on Facebook and spread the word. Since the photo he took wasn’t total rubbish (who’s going to look chipper under a fluorescent bulb outdoors first thing on a Monday morning??), I even shared it on my normally silent Facebook and engage to foster conversation on “my” post… Now I have a new Facebook feed to follow and entertain me with at least one new and refreshing article a day!
Am I some kind of “fame” “whore” to note that if he had talked to me within the first 15 days of the project, I would be in the slideshow of the Huffington Post (BC) article! The Huff Po! ;)
On this day..
- Last week, we were in Maui - 2015
- Geek Lite: Vulcan calligraphy - 2014