We Asked 10+ Strangers in NYC to Take Selfies with Us

Which led to contagious smiles all day long

Maybe at first our voice shakes. Maybe our knees grow weak. Maybe our chest tightens up. Our brain freezes. For most people, at least one of those things happens a few seconds right before we go up to talk to a stranger. I think we are all familiar with that little jolt of anxiety right before going up to a stranger.

Now imagine you’re walking around New York City. Grand Central station with hundreds of people buzzing around you. Or Central Park, with dozens of tourists walking around and locals going about their day. What feelings would go through your body at the thought of going up to a random person and striking up conversation.

That’s exactly what we did in the Big Apple two weeks ago. I was in New York City to work at the marathon, but before reporting for work duty, I decided to reach out to Yes Fam New York and see who was around. What ended up happening was four of us from Yes Fam met up (we had never met before or hardly had any interaction prior). While we had coffee, we played a card game called “Spark” where we were challenged to get at least 10 selfies with strangers.

We started with the waiter. Boom, easy. He said yes! Then we went around the city for a few hours going up to random people and asking. We got plenty of “No’s” for example the staff at the Apple Store who said they cant take photos in their uniforms. We got “yes” from NYPD. We got “yes” from students at the library. We got “yes” from marathon runners in Grand Central Station. We got “yes” from a guy who shines shoes off 42nd street.

We each took turns going to up to a stranger and asking. The first ones were a bit awkward, and then as we went on and refined our pitch, it got easier.

Quite a few people thought we were asking them to take a picture of us, until we clarified we wanted THEM in the picture too. The flash of confusion flickered away and was replaced with a big proud smile.

It resulted in interesting conversations. For example a family from Germany who was in town for the marathon. Or the shoe shine guy ended up being the same guy I’d walked past every day on my way to the office when I lived in NYC in 2017.

It wasn’t a huge activity, but it was a way to pass the time in a meaningful way. It made at least 20+ people smile. It allowed us to not only sharpen our confidence to walk up to strangers, but it forged a way for us to make connections with other people.

Not to mention, the four of us got to know each other really well in a short amount of time. Actually, none of us even live in New York City. All it took was having a YouTube channel in common. A virtual community that brought us together in real life somehow. Each of us leading a different life path and somehow we all overlapped in the same place for a brief moment.

Sai from India. Juris from Latvia. Melanie from France. It’s really hard to explain the sort of magic that brings these kinds of friendships to life. “The magic of life” is probably the closest term I can come to define it as.

Sai was the first person I connected with. He had found my Instagram account this summer after watching the Shaolin video I was in, but we never interacted. When I was on my way to New York and decided to see if anyone wanted to meet up, for some reason his profile came up and I saw a picture in New York City so I messaged him thinking he lived there.

Turns out he lives two hours up state. A quick DM and he said he’d come down to the city to meet up. Then we posted onto Yes Fam NYC Facebook page, which is how we got connected with Juris. Then someone else saw the post and sent it to their friend, which happened to be Melanie. That’s how the four of us ended up in a cafe in New York.

Sai has been living in the US for quite some time and loves traveling and doing spontaneous things. Juris is spending three months in NYC to see if he can find a producer for a musical film he is working on back in his home country. Melanie is solo-traveling the US— her first big trip ever.

With a couple of quick rounds of the game, Spark, we got to know each other very quickly. We learned there are hundreds of languages in India. We learned that there’s a famous Latvian dance event that has 17,000 dancers and occurs only every 5 years. We reflected on our own upbringings and how our families impact how we view the world and the risks we are willing to take.

We came to the conclusion that all of our parents should meet up and go on a trip together. Despite all of us having completely different families and upbringings, the common factor we discovered is that all of us share a love for traveling and learning about new cultures and meeting new people. For some of that is planted at a young age with our upbringing. For others, it’s the opposite. That perhaps having families that don’t travel far or go on adventures, makes us curious to go out and see the world. It doesn’t matter who you are, there’s a little of curiosity toward the world that lives in all of us and we mustn’t let it extinguish.

The four of us roaming New York going up to random people in the street was one of my most memorable days in New York City (and I’ve spent many a days there). The story goes even further…

Melanie shared she would be in Texas a few weeks later and it overlapped with the one weekend I would actually be in Texas all month. She was flying into Houston but i invited her to come visit Austin for the weekend.

That’s what she did! Just two weeks after we met in New York for the first time, she took a bus to my house in Austin. It felt like we had been friends for a long time, and the four days together were so fulfilling and fun.

Turns out Sai also might move to Texas next year! And as for Juris, as we sat at the cafe he overheard the conversation at the table next to us and they were Latvian. And one of them knew a Latvian producer. If that’s not all crazy magic, I don’t know what is.

This story also means to share that when we visit cities or even in our own cities, we can get creative with what we do to pass the time. We don’t always have to “sight see” or go to a restaurant. We can go out into the street and make friends. It’s challenging to do so by yourself so it’s a gift to find people who are willing to challenge themselves and try something out of their comfort zone too. It brings us closer as people and creates memories and connections that are meaningful.

Then like a muscle, the more we do it, maybe the less our voice shakes. Maybe the more courageous we feel. The more empowered. The more free.