A very exciting announcement of the next chapter with this project.

Coming this next week, I couldn't be more excited to bring my project back to Europe, where this whole adventure first began.

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Just five years ago, I was sitting in Coeur d' Alene, struggling with life as much as one human can. I had just gone through a very difficult breakup and was left in my home completely alone, not knowing a single person in this town. I fell apart and struggled to find purpose. I couldn't figure out how to meet new friends or how to have meaningful conversations anymore. I truly thought the only way this would ever work would be if I succumbed to social media and used that as a way to feel less alone. I tried. It made it so much worse.

I finally hit a wall and couldn't be alone any longer. I had really fallen into an emotional hole and was having thoughts that scared me so I knew I had to do something. Something at all. Something to keep me alive and moving forward.

I was waiting tables at the time and didn't have much money. But I just knew I wasn't going to make it if I stayed in that rut so, one day, I looked at a map and saw Europe. I felt the blood start moving again the moment I thought about the different cultures. The different architecture. The different smells and sights. It was the first time I had felt anything in quite a long time so I held onto it as much as I could. I started to daydream about getting there and being able to feel awake again, feeling creatively and personally challenged.

I knew what I had to do.

I looked at flights and, with money I had saved up waiting tables at restaurants, I booked a ticket to Copenhagen, Denmark (cheapest flight I could find). I had no plan other than that. And I barely had any money left over after the ticket so I figured I would scare the shit out of myself and have to figure it out.

One morning, the idea of train travel popped into my head. I absolutely loved this thought of being able to move around the many countries in Europe by train, a romantic and beautiful way to be closer to the cultures as I moved through them. But I surely couldn't afford a train ticket.

I Googled around and found that Eurail ran most of the trains in all of Europe. I went to their website and found their contact information and just put together a quick and passionate email about my trip, why I was doing it and why I wanted to involve trains into it. My idea at the time was to try to connect with strangers on the trains, as we're all stuck together for long periods of time, and would photograph the cities as I passed through them.

I never expected to even hear back from Eurail. Finally, they did and to my absolute surprise, they wanted a lot more information and asked a lot of questions. I went through the questions and answered them honesty and finally, after a lot of deliberation, they agreed to sponsor my crazy idea. They offered me a 'Forever Pass', which allowed me to travel any train, anytime, in all of Europe. It was the first of many dreams to come true from leaving my comfort zone.

I did NOT have much of a photography portfolio at that time and I was not very good at all. It was ONLY my passion in words that came through when they read it.

Since I didn't have much money after booking the flight, I figured I could sleep on the trains at night - Which took a big concern off of my shoulders.

I flew to Copenhagen, got an airBNB for the first three nights and that was it. There were no other plans at all. The first night I got there, I threw up in my airBNB I was so scared, knowing I had no clue what was going to happen or how I was going to figure this all out. If I was going to run out of money, where I was going to sleep, etc.

But all that mattered was that I finally felt alive again. I finally felt awake again. I had a fire that was burning in my heart again, fueling my curiosity and giving me purpose again.

Each and every day after, I just started to walk through cities with my camera. The curiosity alone fueled me to see more and more every day and, as I did, my creativity came back and I kept trying to challenge it. I would take beautiful photographs of the cities and architectures every day which kept me busy but, still, I wasn't leaving my comfort zone. I was wonderfully and safely hidden behind my camera - An observer to the world around me, where no one could ever find me. I knew I had to keep pushing myself. I was on this trip to be changed and to do that, I would have to do many of the things I did not want to do.

I started photographing people from a far. I liked the idea a lot because it allowed me to show people how beautiful the world naturally was. Each and every day, I would see people sitting in these beautiful frames, matching the colors and settings all around them. It was a lot of fun to just be curious and see how many of these situations I could find each day. I would photograph people from a far and then walk away before they ever noticed. I enjoyed doing it but each time, I felt myself choosing comfort instead of doing what I knew I needed to.

If I wanted to scare myself as much as possible, I needed to start saying hello to these people I was photographing. To interact with the world more around me. To put myself out there and quit hiding in the shadows but allow myself to be seen. But to do this meant to do what terrified me the most - To allow myself to possibly be rejected and misunderstood.

The very first person I approached and asked for their photograph told me no. It started with a rejection. But surprisingly, it did not destroy me as much as I told myself it would in my head. I found that the whole situation - The approach, conversation, eye contact, etc. - Got my heart beating more than it had in a long time. Even though it didn't work out well, I was too creatively excited to do anything but keep trying.

In the very beginning, I was so scared to approach strangers that I came up with and rehearsed a script. I would walk up to people and tell them 'Hello! I am going all over the world to take pictures of things I find beautiful and, in this moment, this is SO beautiful! Would you mind if I took this picture?' I thought it was elegant and confident. But, when I did, I found that almost everybody told me no. They didn't trust me and they sure as hell didn't trust the speech. They felt like they were being sold something or that I wanted something from them. When you approach a stranger, you have mere milliseconds to be able to earn someone's trust and if there is any disconnect at all, you will never get it and you will likely never get a second chance.

Even though I was disheartened, I was determined to continue trying. I had nothing else better to do and was pissed off at the disconnect so I wanted to figure out what was going on. And that is when something very magical happened.

After countless rejections, I was so beaten down by all the no's I had gotten, that I started to forget about the script and throw it away. I was tired and exhausted. But I wasn't ready to give up the idea yet. The more tired I got, the more vulnerable I became. And when I threw away the script, I asked people passionately, vulnerably, and then almost every single person said YES. I went from 90%+ rejection to 90%+ people saying yes.

What the hell was this?

I started to understand that people could feel my vulnerability and read it as something that was sincere and could be trusted. I still looked people in the eye and was excited when I talked to them and all this together started allowing me to get all of these photographs of strangers, almost anywhere I wanted them. I understood that, when I was vulnerable first, people always met me in the middle and were vulnerable with me back. This created very connected, meaningful conversations with each person I would meet and, best of all, I didn't have to be anyone but myself. And they knew that they didn't have to be anyone but themselves. This created a bond of trust and intimacy immediately and the conversation just flowed naturally from there.

This was when people started telling me 'I haven't even told this to my wife!' 'I haven't even told this to my father!' There was sincere and concrete trust and we both always felt completely safe, intuitively, to tell each other the truth and be human with one another.

Suddenly, I didn't feel nearly as alone in the world.

I started to see strangers as people I could welcome into my life and be a part of there's. As an introvert, I wasn't able to do this every day but I at least understood that it was always possible, if I would first leave my comfort zone and say hello.

I was lit on fire with passion and purpose from this understanding and couldn't stop moving. I would routinely walk 15-20 miles a day, looking for anything that excited my curiosity and then interacting with it to feel more connected to the world. This was NEVER easy (and still is not). Every time I would see someone I wanted to say hello to and ask for their photograph, the butterflies would start in my stomach and I would come up with 100 reasons why I shouldn't. Why it would be so much safer not to.

But I understood the process so I listened to these fears less and less as I continued.

I went to 8 countries, approaching hundreds of strangers and sharing in their lives as much as they shared in mine. But it wasn't until I was in Milan when things really went even deeper.

I was bouncing around countries on the trains and never had a clue where I was going or going to end up. I ended up in Milan and decided to hop off the train to check out the town and see what I could find. After I got out of the train and walked out into the station, I immediately noticed hundreds of refugees, standing all over the place either by themselves or in small groups. I wanted to learn more about their situations to better empathize and understand so I walked around until I saw a gentleman sitting on a concrete step by himself. I immediately saw the picture and knew I had to ask.

I walked up to him, introduced myself and politely said hello and asked for his photograph. He looked at me and stared for a couple seconds before quickly saying 'No.' Now, I was really exhausted at this point and, in that exhaustion, a bit of additional awkwardness arose and I blankly stared at him for a couple seconds after the no, having no answer to respond with. I really wanted the photograph but I didn't have the energy to really put myself out there and try to gain his trust. I just looked at him, holding my camera.

After a few seconds of brutal awkwardness, confused, he said 'Well, what are you going to do with it?' That woke me up. I said 'Oh! I am traveling all over the world to learn how to connect with the world and photograph the beauty of it. When I saw you sitting here, I immediately saw how beautiful this picture was and wanted to get to know you, if possible. I don't want anything at all for it.'

He stared at me.

Finally, he said 'Okay. You can get the photograph.'

I ran over to the spot where I saw the picture and quickly took it, capturing the same smile and beauty in him that I saw before I said hello. I ran up, excited, and showed him the photograph on the back of the camera, expecting him to give a quick glance and then go about his business.

But, when I showed him the photograph on the back of the camera, he reached out and slowly took the camera from me - Looking even closer at the photograph. I didn't know what he was doing but I was still exhausted so I stood there while he did. He examined the picture closely, a very slight smile forming on his mouth as he did. And finally, he looked up at me, now with tears forming in his eyes and said 'No one has ever asked to take my photograph before.'

Holy shit. Tears immediately started to well up in my eyes also. We just looked at each other, completely 100% vulnerable and connected in these brief interaction, and I knew exactly what he meant and why it was so significant. I saw him. But I didn't just see him, I interacted and said hello to him, really wanting nothing at all. Because I saw him and said hello, looking him in the eyes when we talked, he knew he wasn't alone in that moment and we both shared a very human encounter from there.

And it cost me nothing at all except for my pride and embracing my fears.

I realized right then that that's the magic of this project. It's not for the photograph or even the conversation as much as it is showing people that I see them - And allowing them to see me also. In that, we both felt less alone in a world that is constantly moving around us, seeing us but so, so rarely interacting with us - Making us feel like an extra in their movie. Like we are a ghost passing through. Even just a brief hello with eye contact is enough to remind us that we're not nearly as alone as we allow ourselves to believe sometimes.

From there, I knew what I had to do and I just threw myself into being as close to people as possible. I would say hello, ask for the photograph but then quickly put the camera away to just share in their lives with them. There was never a script to this. I never had a single clue what I was doing or what I was going to say. I just put myself out there and figured it out as I went, allowing the conversations to be very connected and genuine every single time.

I ended up going to 14 countries on that one trip. I spent over 130 hours on the trains in the first 30 days. I couldn't stop. I wanted to see as much as I could but even better, keep trying to understand this idea of vulnerability and authenticity. I kept putting myself in more and more difficult situations - Language disconnects, poverty, crime, everything. Whatever I could do to try to poke holes in this awareness and prove to me that maybe it was just luck.

It proved the opposite. Being vulnerable allowed me to connect with almost every person, almost every single time, no matter how extreme the situation was. No matter how different I looked or sounded than the people I was approaching.

It changed my life. And thankfully, countless others around the world. This project has now been to 20 countries, approaching thousands of strangers around the world and sharing in our lives together. I have done this in countries as complicated as Cuba. Countries as comfortable as the United States. Countries like Jamaica where I was ALWAYS the minority and always had to earn respect in each situation to be able to connect deeper with them. I went from a 90%+ rejection rate to now, I have less than a 3% rejection rate, as an overall average, combining every country I have brought this too.

It always works. It's always important. And it's the simplest thing of all - To just be yourself. Be vulnerable. And put yourself out there.

Now, I get to head back to where it all began. Back to Europe with another collaboration with Eurail, allowed to go to up to 32 countries this time to find connection and culture. I will be flying into Rome and only have a place for the first three days. From there, I will interact with locals to not just share in their lives but also to let them tell me where to go - So that this entire trip is spontaneous.

Join me on another beautiful, wild ride. Love you all.