Humans of Mill Valley

In the popular blog and book “Humans of New York,” photographer Brandon Stanton makes it his mission to find the stories of strangers in New York City. He takes pictures of each person he talks to, and adds an interesting conversation he had with them or a unique quote they said as the caption. On these two pages, the JagWire follows Stanton’s lead; reporters and photographers spoke to Mill Valley students they had never met before and gathered their stories.

Junior Maddie Gerber

What are your goals?

My goal is to get out of Kansas. I want to go to a city, like Chicago or New York. I love the city life. Everything’s close together, there’s a lot of different people and everyone’s just themselves. Music is really what I want to do and there’s not a lot of that here, but there is in the city.

Senior Peyton Barton

What has been a defining moment in your life?

When I was accepted into the Voyagers program. For the first time, I felt like I really belonged in a community of people who understood me.

Freshmen Haley Harvey, Andrea Gillespie and Cameron Loew

What do you like to do with your friends?

Haley: [We like going] couponing. My mom has this big coupon book full of coupons, so I go through it and I look for the best deals.

Andrea: She’s trying to make it on the show.

Cameron: There’s a lot of places we go to shop, and it’s deals where we usually split the cost so everyone gets something out of it.

Senior Kylie Tennis

What is one of your goals?

I would like to be an author.

Why do you want to be an author?

My Creative Writing class with [Peter] Shull has made me want to become an author, he’s inspired me.

Senior Henry Hanson

Where do you see yourself in five years?

In five years I’ll probably have just graduated college and I’ll probably be in a big city trying to make it work as an actor. My goal is to be acting in some capacity. Making a living off of it. I really don’t care what I’m doing as long as I’m acting and making a living. I’m not one of those ‘I’m going straight to broadway’ people, no. I’ll take whatever I can get. Not porn, I draw the line somewhere.

Freshman Daniel Nicot

So I heard you’re fluent in Spanish and French?

I am fluent when speaking but I don’t really know how to write it … My dad is from France and my mom is from Cuba. We don’t speak it at home because my [siblings] aren’t fluent.

What are some advantages of knowing multiple languages?

Getting better job oportunities … Also, it’s a big gift because I can go to a lot of countries and … speak with a lot of people.

Freshman Ashley Ebner

Is there anything that makes you different from others?

I’ve been dancing since I was like two.

What do you like about dance?

Well, it’s a lot of fun to be able to, I don’t really know how to describe it, dance with your friends, because you get to do

different things that you wouldn’t get to do at school.

What’s your favorite thing about doing dance?

Just the way you can bond with other people through movement.

Junior Jeremiah Kemper

What is your favorite color?

Red is my favorite color. It used to be blue and then my grandfather passed away and he was a big baseball fan and his favorite team was the Cincinnati Reds. So ever since then it’s been red.

Senior Brooke Collins

What are some of your goals for the future?

I want to graduate from KU but the major is undecided. The most difficult part is that for me, I have a bunch of different interests in different career areas, [so] it’s hard to choose what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Junior Madison Remijio

What’s your favorite quality about yourself?

I would say my quick wit.

Can you tell me a joke?

Ready? Why did the dog cross the road?

Why?

It didn’t; it died. I got that off a Laffy Taffy wrapper.