Icebreakers

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For this assignment, we were to photograph strangers and ask them what their favorite childhood memory was. I found this difficult, as approaching strangers does not come easy to me.

Carol Edrechi

The first person I approached was Carole Edrechi. Carol was sitting cozily next to this lovely bronze statue, and I approached her asking if I could photograph her and ask her a couple questions. She was delighted, and immediately became such a ham. After I took a couple frames, I asked her about her childhood memory. She paused, and told me about how growing up in Chicago, she didn’t have my happy memories,”My favorite childhood memory is being adopted when I was 14, and actually sitting and having a meal with them.” She got a little teary, and I asked if I could take her photo again. She kindly oblidged, and hugged me when I left.

Lynda Stokes

Because of Carole’s kindness, I worked up the strength to speak with more people. Next I met Lynda Stokes. Lynda was tenitive to have her photo taken, but kindly oblidged when I complimented her lilac sweater. Lynda grew up in Toronto, Canada. “I grew up on a farm , and loved playing in the brush.” I learned later that it was her 50th birthday just two days prior.

Kaleb Wagner

Later in the day I approached Kaleb Wagner, an employee at 20th Century Bowling on his 10 minute break. When I asked if I could photograph him, he responded with bounding energy, and ran inside to tell his co-worker he would be a second longer. When he returned, he picked his half-smoked cigarette up from the ground, and told me about growing up in Mukilteo Washington. “My favorite memory was growing up at the skate parks,” he said grinning. Right after telling me this, he bolted back inside and I had to chase him down to get his name.

Jessica Sanchez

On my way home, exhausted from walking the length of Bellingham in a day, I met Jessica Sanchez. A soon to be Western Washington University Allumni, Jessica told me all about her childhood in Snohomish, Washington. “I remember going for walks with my Grandma. She moved to Florida, so looking back I really cherish that now.” Jessica and I rode the same bus for a short while, and then parted ways.

Deividas Adkins

A day or so later, I had the pleasure of meeting Deividas Adkins. Deividas was hesitant to have his photo taken, telling me multiple times he was not an experienced model. However, after thinking about the question he gave me a stellar answer, “My favorite memory is probably riding in my dad’s Dodge Viper, listening to Nickelback. He had three Dodge Vipers.”

Parissa Rad

Finally, there was Parissa Rad. Parissa graciously opened up to me, telling me about growing up with family in Iran. “When I was little, me and my uncle would wait in line for bread in Iran, I remember waiting all day!” We talked for a while about school, and majors, and found that we had both switched out of the Art major recently, her into biology, and myself into journalism.

Walking away from this assignment, I feel that by pushing myself to speak with strangers, there was a strange reciprocity in which the people I talked to were willing to be extremely open and vunrable with me. I noticed how when someone is pushing outside of their comfort zone, it can inspire others to do the same.