Brandon Stanton's Blog, page 364

"I didn’t start feeling special until I was forty!"

"I didn’t start feeling special until I was forty!"

"What do you feel most guilty about?""That I live on the West...

"What do you feel most guilty about?"
"That I live on the West Coast, and my mom lives here on her own. I’m here on business, so I just got to visit her. My friend calls these ‘lightbulb trips.’ When you visit your older parent after not seeing them for awhile, and there’s something simple they need you to do, like a burned out lightbulb that they need you to reach, and you realize that if you hadn’t come, they’d have been sitting in the dark."

"I want to study engineering at MIT. I’ve still got two...

"I want to study engineering at MIT. I’ve still got two years until I graduate high school, so I’m trying to learn everything I can. I’m a certified cable installer, and I’m also certified in fiber optic cable, but I still need my copper based systems certification. I practice making cables all the time. I can write the perfect essay telling you how to make cables, but I still need to work on keeping my hand steady. You need a very steady hand when you’re working with fiber optic cables. So for twenty minutes everyday, I work on balancing my tools on my hand, just like this."

"I’m always sad.""Are there certain thoughts associated...

"I’m always sad."
"Are there certain thoughts associated with the sadness?"
"No, the sadness is under the thoughts. It’s like when you’re on a camping trip, and it’s really cold, and you put on extra socks, and an extra sweater, but you still can’t get warm, because the coldness is in your bones."
"Do you hope to get away from it?"
"Not anymore. I just hope to come to peace with it."

"He got one of the lead roles in his school production of...

"He got one of the lead roles in his school production of Hairspray. I got a little mixed up and told everyone my son was playing the lead role in Hair. Turns out that Hair is the name of a play with naked people."

"I’m an architect, and I’ve designed buildings all...

"I’m an architect, and I’ve designed buildings all over the world. Every time I get a commission in an emerging market, I get excited about the opportunity to draw from the country’s heritage, culture, and art. But the client never wants it. They all want the same thing: ‘modern style, modern style, modern style.’ Everything has to be high and glassy. It’s almost as if everyone wants to hide their differences. It’s boring."

"I spent two weeks building my daughter a rocket ship out of...

"I spent two weeks building my daughter a rocket ship out of cardboard boxes. Then when I finally finished, she started crying because it wouldn’t fly."

"I don’t think people realize how hurtful of a word...

"I don’t think people realize how hurtful of a word ‘still’ can be. So many times people have asked me if I’m ‘still’ chasing my dream of being on television, with a tone that implies I’ll eventually be giving up."

"What’s your greatest struggle right now?""No struggles."

"What’s your greatest struggle right now?"
"No struggles."

A few months ago, I introduced everybody to a community that my...

A few months ago, I introduced everybody to a community that my girlfriend started called Susie’s Senior Dogs. (Named after our dog Susie, who we adopted at age eleven and has been a complete joy.) I haven’t mentioned Susie’s Senior Dogs in awhile, because I try to keep HONY 99.9% portraits, but amazing things have been happening over there. In the past few months, Erin has connected over 100 senior dogs with homes all over the country. Almost all the dogs are over seven years old, and some have been sitting in shelters for months or years. Now they have wonderful, loving homes in which to live out the rest of their days. So if you think you may ever want a dog, know somebody who may want a dog, or just want to be encouraged by some of the wonderful adoption stories— please consider following the page. (The four dogs pictured— Eva, Savannah, Holly, and Lucy— all found homes through Susie’s Senior Dogs.)