the summer shadow

[Archive, summer 2017] This summer, I'm driving around America, stopping in tiny towns, bustling cities, and everywhere in between. It's a little different from a typical road trip, because I'm showing up and shadowing strangers—hedge trimmers or hedge funds managers, actresses or accountants. For two to four days, I’ll shadow all parts of their life, asking questions about work, home, creativity—everything.

This trip has two functions. The first is that I’m choosing to write about these people because I believe that everyone is interesting and important. I want to assign value to the lives of others, like journalists do with celebrities, by learning about their world. Everyone’s life has elements of both the mundane and the divine; living with people and shadowing their life invites me into these levels of their human experience.

Secondly, I am a college student. I am also (I claim, only sometimes) a writer. I need to back up that assertion with content; I need to gauge my command of my own creative output; I need to drive the road of an independent creative and figure out if it’s worth the gas money. The Summer Shadow lets me be a writer for two months. I’m committing for two months, and I’ll see afterwards what big strides come next. For now, I’m just a shadow.