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November 6, 2015

By Lance Berwald –

“Should I have done this or not.” This thought comes across everyone at least once in their lifetime. I’m in college now and I think to myself “Do I still have time to pursue my passion or spend time with my family?” This became more apparent once I got assigned the Humans of UW-Stout Facebook page.

The Humans of UW-Stout Facebook project is a Facebook page that shows more than a single story. It tells what opinions people have, thoughts on life, their backgrounds, advice, struggles, and any unedited story they have to tell. This Facebook page shows that everybody has their story to tell. It was modeled after the page of Humans of New York made by Brandon Stanton who is a photographer. He started the page by just taking pictures, but along the way he began to get their story as well. When my English Teacher Dr. Genesea Carter told our English 101 class in the first week that we had to do this project, I thought to myself I do not want to do this at all. We had to do five stories on people we didn’t know in the community of UW-Stout and post what they have to say on Facebook. For the stories, we had to take a picture of the person or an object that related to the story. It was very nerve racking at first but it got me out of my comfort zone. I chose these stories because these were the people that were most open to me while talking. I shared these pictures to give humor and advice to the readers of this page.

The first time I interviewed a person for the Humans of UW-Stout Facebook page they were very open with talking to me, and thought it was very cool that I was doing this project. However, the second person was definitely not the same. They were very shy at first, but with some more talking, while we were doing our homework, she told me some actual stories about her life. They were very interesting but she did not want them posted on the Facebook page. Even though I did not get to post this person it was still great listening to a person’s story that I did not know.

While looking through the Humans of UW-Stout Facebook page the first picture that caught my eye was taken by Joseph Anderson. I instantly related to this photo because I also wished I would have pursued my basketball dream. When I interviewed Joseph I asked why he chose to post the quote “My biggest regret is not pursuing my college basketball dreams”, and why he thought readers would want to see it. He responded almost immediately saying, “I chose to post this so people would follow through on what they love to do and I also think the readers need to hear this because no one should give up on their dream.”

Photo taken by Joseph Anderson

Another picture that I instantly related to was the picture taken by Choua Xiong. The quote "I regret not spending more time with my family", definitely got me to think how I have missed being with my family, and it made me realize that I should have spent more time with them when given the chance. Once you are gone from home you realize you took things for granted like simply seeing them every day. When I asked Choua what she wanted people to take away from the quote she said, “We all have regrets. Sometimes other's regrets are similar to our regrets as well. With similar regrets we can connect with each other and help one another”. You never know how much you will miss something until it is gone.

This next picture also talked about how family is a big part of your life with the quote “I have 8 brothers and sisters, my youngest two siblings are adopted from Haiti. Sometimes I don't like having a big family because it gets chaotic, but they are always there for me." Family can get crazy but you still love them and miss being with them. While interviewing the photographer, Quintin Sabelko, I asked what he why he thinks readers need to see this and he responded with, “I think readers need to see this because it might remind them of their family, and maybe bring back memories with their family that they did not cherish enough before they came to college.” I can relate to this because once your family is gone you tend to think to yourself, “Wow, I should have spent more time with them.”

Photo taken by Choua Xiong

The people that I interviewed who took these photos had different and similar experiences talking to their “humans” compared to me.

Photo taken by Quintin Sabelko

Quintin enjoyed learning from this project that everyone has an interesting story to tell. I can agree with him completely, and I also thought it was an interesting experience talking to a person that I did not know before. Joseph and Chouas experience was that he connected with the people he talked to and thought it was interesting that he related to so many people. I really did not connect to the people I talked to but I enjoyed listening to their stories.

In the beginning of the Humans of UW-Stout Facebook page assignment I thought this was going to be a terrible experience. However, as I started to do it I actually loved listening to random people that I did not know talk about their stories. Just like the people in these photos I do regret a lot of things in my life like pursuing my basketball dream and not spending enough time with my family. What I have learned from talking to all these people is that everyone has regret coming into college and it will only grow with more time, so just cherish every moment and do not take anything for granted.