I have been thinking about how we interact with people. About how we tell our story, and about how we listen. So I thought it would be an interesting exercise to start getting the stories of others. By interviewing another person, I think it allows for interesting conversations and new connections.
To do this, I would like to interview people I know. If you are willing to spend an hour or less being interviewed by me, I would like to talk to you! I’ll buy you coffee, tea, or a beer. Then you will have final editing rights before it gets posted.
My friend Mike was wiling to be the first interviewee (thanks!). Mike is a first-year graduate student in the Geography department. We have been friends for the past year and I think he’s a pretty cool guy.
Name: Mike
Age: 29
Occupation: Student
Hometown: Coram, NY
[J] What one food are you surviving on in college?
[M] Pizza.
[J] If you were an animal, what would you be?
[M] A sea turtle. I could just swim around all the time and be like ‘I have a shell, bitch.’
[J] What kinds of people do you dislike?
[M] Intolerant people and loud people.
[J] What was your childhood like?
[M] I have very good memories, a very happy childhood.
[J] What did you want to be when you grew up?
[M] Oh (laughing) I wanted to be a lot of things. An FBI agent, a fireman, an electrical engineer.
[J] Do you have any family traditions?
[M] Every summer when I was growing up my family went to Star Island for a week. The same families came year after year, and I’m still friends with some of them.
[J] If you could meet any person, living or dead, who would it be and what would you ask them?
[M] It sounds cliche, but Obama. I would ask him “how do you stay so calm in the face of such adversity?”
[J] Describe the most beautiful place you ever visited.
[M] Puerto Escondido, in Mexico. It is a quiet, sleepy town on the Pacific. It feels like you are away from everything.
[J] List the top five places you would like to travel to.
[M] Hawaii, New Zealand, China, Argentina, Costa Rica.
[J] What are your proudest accomplishments?
[M] Moving from where I grew up on the east coast to California. Finding a place I love.
[J] Do you have any regrets?
[M] I have only one regret in my life: voting for George W. Bush in 2004.
Thanks Mike!