Matthew
I asked him about the bag around his neck. He said "In it I have these meditation beads-" he showed me a string of wooden beads. "-I say a mantra for each one, it takes about 3 hours." When I asked what that did, he said it purifies the consciousness.
David
I don't think I'll ever forget this guy. The type to walk by a perfect stranger, make eye contact, and greet cheerfully. After pulling me into a one-arm hug, he mentioned all the people with cameras right now. I informed him that they were from a photography class, all to my knowledge art majors. And we got onto the topic of majors.
"Yeah, I'm not an art major though."
Really? What's your major?
"Kinesiology, because I want to be a physical therapist. That's not my only passion though! I also play chess a lot. See, on Wednesdays they have a meet on Medical; they have a website here, if you want to look..."
He did not let me leave until he gave me the website and made me promise to look it up.
What do you think they're doing?
"Okay, follow me here; earlier I saw them remove two transformers from under the library, and that looks like fire retardant material, so they're replacing the panels under the transformers while they're being repaired."
Wow, are you like an electronics major, to know all that?
"Nah, just a guess. I have engineering tendencies."
I never got his name. After taking the picture, he commented on my camera and took off for a class.
This guy had been on campus for 3 days. Finally I got the guts to ask him a few questions.
So I'm wondering, what's the purpose of this?
"Well, I just wanted to ask people what they would do if there was nothing stopping them. I just got back from Peru; I had saved up all my money to buy a one-way ticket there. I volunteered, I did backpacking-" he gestured to a large backpack. -"I'm back but I'm going to leave again, and before I go I wanted to go around and pose this kind of question to other people."
Fun fact, after taking to him I looked up theworldonmyback.com. You can see a pic of the campus.
Leia
"So do you want me riding, or?..."
Oh, whatever you're most comfortable with.
"I'm always more comfortable riding."
And with that she hopped on and ride a few laps while I shot.