The 22 Project: NYC - episode 1

As of today, I'm going to be in the Greatest City on Earth* (*source needed) for only twenty-two more days, and despite my greatest efforts, I'm still a sad little caterpillar when it comes to branching out and meeting people on my own.  If I want to make it in film, this simply will not do.  So I've decided to put myself to the test: for every day I am still in New York, I will get a picture with one new person I've never met before.  That's 22 people, 22 chances to learn something new, and 22 stories I get to tell.

And so the 22 Project begins.

Excuse the photo quality. It's a work in progress.

This is me with my new pal Bereket!


He's from Eritrea, which he describes as "the booger-shaped country north of Ethiopia."

I didn't get the chance to ask Bereket what he's doing in New York – worst interview ever, right? – but I do know this: he says "excuse me" when he needs to squeeze past someone on the subway, and he checks with fellow passengers to make sure he's on the right train.  Or who knows?  Maybe it's just to make conversation.
He certainly seemed comfortable enough asking a young woman to share what she was reading.  Everyone in the immediate area seemed shocked that someone would be so brazen as to interrupt a New Yorker while she's reading on the subway, and she wasn't the nicest about holding up her book so he could read the title.  He didn't seem to mind.


In a way, I owe this entire idea to Bereket.  I'd had it on my mind for a while, along with different projects that are yet to come (keep a lookout the "Friendless Girl" and the "Un-Expert").  But there was something holding me back!  Subway riders are scary, right?  We're all so careful to stay in our own little worlds, forgetting that the people around us probably feel the same way.  We're not strangers so much as we are identical.  And then along came Bereket, reminding me that those barriers are so easily broken.  He was just interesting enough that he didn't seem crazy, and just crazy enough to inspire me.  So to him I send a Bronx bound 4 train full of gratitude, and to my readers – all two of you, thanks Mom and boyfriend – I introduce the New York City that met me this summer.