Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York

I can be obsessive. When I want something, I FIND it. No matter where it may be hidden, you better believe I will find it. I can obsess over things. The slight problem is that I hardly am passionate about anything, and getting my interest is HARD.  I remember I watched a movie with my family recently on Netflix; ABDUCTED: The Carlina White Story. It's a biographical film. Anyway, so my family had moved on to the next movie but I was buried deep in stories, news reports, interviews, anything at all I could get my hands on about the real Carlina. I was curious. I wanted to know more. How did it happen? When did it happen? What were the circumstances? That's the way it is with me. 

But besides this curiosity and obsessiveness, the one trait that has stayed with me all my life is that I absolutely love listening to people's personal stories. I want to know about random people. Who are they? What's their story? It's why I read memoirs, it's why I prefer biographies and true life stories, it's why I love listening to commencement speeches. I pride myself in being a good listener, although I may not tell you my own story (I hardly ever do). This is also why I am blown away by the Humans of New York idea. To be able to read the stories (extremely personal ones) of random New Yorkers, oh what a thrill. But you know what will even feed my obsession more? To know the story of the person behind the idea--actually, the genius behind the idea. That's how I found this video. He talks about how the idea came about, his own background, and of course, Humans of New York. Most importantly, HOW does he get people to be so comfortable with him, that they share deeply personal stories within MINUTES of meeting him?  Enjoy! 

Humans of The World: The Vidal and Ms. Lopez's Story

Let me tell you a story. There is an account on Instagram, the owner of the account interviews random people on the streets of New York after taking a picture of them. He then posts their picture with a part of their story. See, I don't know how he does what he does, but Brandon (the photographer) also evokes an emotion in them; so much that they tell tear-jerking, intricately deep things about themselves. I tell you, it could be one line, but this one line would get you in deep thought for the rest of your life. I don't know where to begin to describe HumansofNY.  I wanted to munch some of the pictures to put here, but why give you some tidbits when you can head over to the Instagram or the Facebook page to see things for yourself? Besides, I am watching a new episode of Grey's Anatomy live, and I am missing so much action haha. #TGIT people. However, when I saw the latest development with the story I am blogging about, I just couldn't hold back. I posted on Facebook and decided to post here too. Just because, we all need stories like this to remind us of the good in this world.

When we first met Vidal.

      

Then we met Ms. Lopez...

Things started to get pretty serious.

Well, they started a campaign to institute an annual class trip to Harvard for students at Ms. Lopez's school, Mott Hall Bridges Academy. In a few hours, they raised $185,000.

Another student of the school.

Aww someone randomly sent Ms. Lopez flowers--or some people

He made the Daily news!

Yay Nigeria!

Yayyyy!

And then he made it to Ellen...

They shot a segment with Robin Robert 

So I will end this LONG post with my Facebook status tonight...

"I have been following this story from the first moment HumansofNY interviewed Vidal. Heck, haven't we all? The famous Vidal. But to see him here, to see him with Obama, I have never been so inspired my entire life. What? Like woahh! I am just so speechless. But then again, this just preaches hard-work and commitment and selflessness. Ms. Lopez has been a hero to all those children without ever expecting anything back.

I guess I am even more inspired because I never had a Ms. Lopez in my life; I never had a teacher so invested in me the way she is with ALL her students. However, people like Vidal need the Ms. Lopez(s) of this world more than people like me. So yeah, HumansofNY is literally changing the world yo! One picture at a time..."

                                                   
Love, and some inspiration,
I

Motion Sickness

I think I suffer from something called Motion Sickness. I am not sure if I do, but it’s possible I do. I sometimes dread journeys because of this. When a journey first starts, I am all giddy and excited about my trip. Moments later, my stomach churns and starts to bring great discomfort. No matter how I adjust my sitting position, nothing changes. I can’t work or do anything productive. I feel like I am about to throw up. Then it occurs to me I felt this exact way my last journey or even worse. I message my friend to tell him, “I feel terribly car-sick. I might throw up at any minute.” He replies, "How can you hate planes and cars at the same time?” Shoot. I  don’t really like plane rides either. I mean, I used to, but it just creeps me out for the most part now. “I don’t hate cars though. I just don’t feel well.” I say to him.  Then it all comes rushing to my head, it can not be a coincidence that every time I am on a journey, I feel sick. In preparation of this journey, I even had a good breakfast. I am thinking my conversation with my friend will distract me, but it doesn’t. So now I drop my phone, and my books, and continue typing this. No? Ok I Google it. Eureka! There is a name? Whew. I start to think back.

See, I have always felt this way from as far back as I can remember. But I always attributed what I felt to anxiety about going back to boarding school. It was a two-hour journey (thanks to Lagos traffic) from home to school when I was in secondary school. I always felt terrible, but because I thought it was my irrational fear of boarding school and senior girls, I never said a word. Sometimes, I’d tell my Mommy I felt horrible. She would give me medications for malaria because boarding school was synonymous to sickness. That was her way of preparing me for what was to come. Other times, she’d remind me that she and the rest of my family were just a phone-call away, there was no need to be homesick. Okay. But then, I became a senior girl myself, but still had these major sickness on the way to school. Whatever then. 

I sleep a lot when I am traveling. It is just occurring to me that it was my body’s way of coping. I always sleep. And when I sleep, I don’t feel ill. Oh! Today though, I can’t sleep. I have tried everything, but no sleep so I am struggling, hoping I don’t throw up on my books and computer. Oh well. Google says to stare into the horizon in the direction you are traveling at, and chew gum; both of which I am now doing. They seem to help but not for long. Google says motion sickness and reading are enemies. Aha! No wonder I am never able to read in a moving car or on the metro. Even if it’s a five minutes trip, I just don’t feel good whenever I read.

                                   

Trying--but failing--to do some work. Excuse the crooked handwriting. 

I accept my fate, and thank God I am not throwing up even though I still feel woozy, uncomfortable, and dizzy, like if I make an attempt to walk, I will fall down. So I sit up and try to daydream. The journey is almost over, thankfully. I look forward to that.  I stop working entirely and smile at the realization that I just converted my problem into a blog post. Every disappointment is truly a blessing.

MLK Day: L.O.C and MLK Memorial Visit.

Last Monday, my friends and I decided to take advantage of the holiday. So we took off to the Library of Congress to see the Magna Carta tour. Magna Carta was a charter issued by...I could fill this whole post with the story or I could direct you here to read it yourselves. I chose the latter. It was issued in the year 1215, so this makes it the 800th year. In commemoration of the celebration of the first issue, the L.O.C put up an exhibition. It was interesting, to say the least. Plus even if I go the the L.O.C a hundred times, I will still be in awe of the magnificent architectural design each time I step in there. We also checked out the MLK memorial--duh! It was MLK day. And oh, have you seen Selma? What a beautiful movie! Anyway, check out more pictures from the day below...

Friday Reflections.

1.) I was featured on Bellanaija, yay!

2.) Speaking of Bellanaija, I should reiterate that my last post is in no way against Charlie Hebdo. See, we are all on the same side; against terrorism.

3.) Something weird happened to me last night: I had always hummed a tune, and never knew who sang it or what song it was. I searched and searched, nothing.

4.) Yesterday, while watching an old episode of Grey's Anatomy, I heard it!! Then off to Google to search for details of that episode, and bam. Then some tears started to roll down my face at the realization that I really just figured out what song it was. Then I sent my sister a hysterical voicenote. Errr

5.) I think just finding an answer to a question I had for so long caused all the emotion. Eureka!

6.) Eureka!

7.) Shonda Rhimes is really the queen of TV. No dispute.

8.) You know you are really queen, when your biggest competitors sent you a gift that said, "Over here at Empire, we bow down to the Queen of Television."

9.) Empire is a new hit show on Fox, which I am finding really interesting already, at just the second episode.

10.) I am afraid I may not like how Blacks are portrayed on that show though. I am sure many others share my sentiments.

11.) Oh the song I was talking about is Afternoon by Youth Lagoon. Who is/are Youth Lagoon?

Je ne suis pas Charlie Hebdo.

"Seventeen people died in France last week, world leaders have marched and stood together in unity. Over 2000 people died in Nigeria, this past week ALONE. No world leader has even paid a visit, let alone march. I can understand that, what I can never understand is why Nigerians are screaming about Charlie Hebdo, but saying absolutely nothing about the massacre going on in northern Nigeria. ‪#‎JeSuisBaga‬ ‪#‎NigeriaDecides‬"

The above was my Facebook status some days ago. Except you live under the rock and you never come out to breathe, then you can be excused if you did not hear about the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks. In summary, the newspaper was a target of a terrorist attack last week. This attack was presumed to be in response to a number of controversial Muhammad cartoons it published. In support of the newspaper, and in solidarity for freedom of press and speech, a hashtag ensued, #JeSuisCharlieHebdo which literally means I am Charlie Hebdo. Days later, world leaders marched in unity and in support of Charlie Hebdo. I am sure you must therefore be wondering if I am insane, considering that the title of this post means I am not Charlie Hebdo. I am not a Muslim. I am not a terrorist.  I will never be in support of terrorism. I know its a global war against terrorism, so I am happy about the stand for unity, progress and freedom. That being said, I still am not Charlie Hebdo.

I am not Charlie Hebdo because I am too busy being Baga. I am Chibok. I am Borno. I am Jos. I am Nigerian.

Friday Reflections.

1.) Happy new year.

2.) I don't typically make New Year's resolutions.

3.) That being said, the one resolution I have this year is to stop laughing at people, and talking about people in general.

4.) In other words, I will be minding my damn business this year. LOL.

5.) If my French teacher back in high school had spent more time teaching us French than screaming at us, and being mean, perhaps, I wouldn't be spending all these time learning the language.

6.) Je comprends un peu L'Francais.

7.) Something is wrong with me; I spent the bulk of my holiday watching Grey's Anatomy, AGAIN! I need help!

8.) People make so much noise about freedom in defense of homosexualism and many other things, yet these same people castigate religion a tad too much.

9.) If you can be free to announce to the world who you have sexual relations with, why can't I be free to make noise about my Jesus wherever I deem fit?

10.) I am sick of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. I usually try not to insult him because I respect the office, but God knows GEJ frustrates my efforts every time he opens his mouth.

11.) If you let yourself, you'll wake up one morning and realize how indifferent you now are about that thing that once gave you sleepless nights. If you let yourself, you''ll wake up one morning and realize you have been healed.

12.) My holiday comes to an end this weekend. Even as an adult, I am still having chills about heading back. Bleh. #Oldhabitsdiehard.

13.) I am fast becoming a hashtag junkie.