Brandon Stanton's Blog, page 281

“I’ve tried to invest my time and money into other people’s...

“I’ve tried to invest my time and money into other people’s dreams.  I
thought that helping others succeed would be an easy way to accomplish
something without the pressure of doing it myself.  But I’ve been
burned.  You’d expect people to be grateful if you’ve helped them.  But a
lot of times they will avoid you.  People don’t like to be reminded
that they owe their success to anyone.  Sometimes they’ll even find
reasons to vilify you, if it helps to make the debt invalid.”

The story of Mott Hall Bridges Academy took on such an...

The story of Mott Hall Bridges Academy took on such an incredible life of its own during the last few days, that it became easy to forget our fundraiser. With just 33 hours left, the campaign has raised $1.25 million, with every dollar raised over $700,000 going into a scholarship fund for MHBA graduates. 41,500 of you have donated so far. I’ve been told by a reliable source that the most-backed Indiegogo campaign ever had 48,000 donors. I think it would be a fun ending to the story if we could surpass that amount. If you were inspired by the story of MHBA, please consider becoming a part of that story by contributing $5 or $10 to the scholarship fund that we’ve created for its scholars.

You can do so here: https://life.indiegogo.com/fundraisers/let-s-send-kids-to-harvard

“I don’t know how to make the transition to ‘OK, let’s go out...

“I don’t know how to make the transition to ‘OK, let’s go out now.’ I always think that if I ask, and it doesn’t work, I won’t even have what we have now.”

“We were married for eighteen years before he fucked around and...

“We were married for eighteen years before he fucked around and I caught him. But I’d say it was a very successful marriage. We raised two kids. I don’t think something has to last forever to be successful.”

“I had just turned eighteen when we met. He was in his...

“I had just turned eighteen when we met.  He was in his thirties.  I’d
wanted to go to the beach that day, but my mother made me go to a
restaurant with her friends.   While we were eating, this gringo came
over and started talking to us.  He didn’t speak a word of Portuguese,
and I didn’t speak a word of English.  My mother’s friends were
encouraging him to talk to me.  One of them gave him my number,
and the next day he started texting me these simple Spanish phrases.  
He’d write things like: ‘Vamos a la playa,’ which was funny, because I
spoke Portuguese.  Eventually he asked to take my mother and I out to
dinner.  He kept a dictionary in his hand the entire time we were
eating, and he spoke in very short phrases.  I asked him what he did,
and he accidentally said ‘diving.’  So for a long time, I thought I was
dating a diver.  When he went back to America, he started sending me
cards.  Then he began to visit on the weekends.  It was all very
exciting for me.  I fell in love with him.  But I didn’t really know
him.  Whenever we were together, he was away from the worries of his
life.  I fell in love with someone who was on vacation.”

"You know you’re getting older when people start to...

"You know you’re getting older when people start to over-explain things to
you.  I was signing up for a course last week, and this twenty-something
girl started explaining the payment options.  She was talking very
slowly, and kept repeating herself.  Give me a break.  I have a Masters
in business."

"I thought having kids would magically transform me into a...

"I thought having kids would magically transform me into a mother, who had
no problem doing laundry, or cooking, or keeping house.  But I ended up
still being me, just with children now."

"My parents put me in a home for retarded people."

"My parents put me in a home for retarded people."

“We’re getting married tomorrow. For tax purposes.”

“We’re getting married tomorrow.  For tax purposes.”

“Who has influenced you the most in your life?”“My mother. She...

“Who has influenced you the most in your life?”
“My mother. She had me when she was 18 years old, and my father left when I was one year old, so I never really knew him. Like a lot of single moms, she had to struggle to work, and eventually she also struggled to go to school. And she’s really the person who instilled in me a sense of confidence and a sense that I could do anything. She eventually went on to get her PhD. It took her ten years, but she did it, and I watched her grind through it. And as I got older, like everyone else, I realized that my mother wasn’t all that different than me. She had her own doubts, and fears, and she wasn’t always sure of the right way of doing things. So to see her overcome tough times was very inspiring. Because that meant I could overcome tough times too.”