Hello, My Name Is... The Next Chapter of Your Life!

Just before the pandemic, a woman set out to meet 1,000 new people in a year. Countless knitting-group meetings, book clubs, happy hours, and dog walks later, the person she got to know best? Herself.

-  JENNI LAIDMAN

In 2019 I set out to meet 1,000 people in a year.

I was driving home from teaching my last class of the spring semester when the idea drifted in with the pollen. I gave it absolutely no critical examination, but it felt right. I like meeting people. (Most of the time.) I'm a journalist: Hand me a notebook, give me an assignment, and I can meet anyone. Now I had an assignment for all occasions. I could do this! As I rounded the curve toward home, I did some quick math-quick for me and realized I needed to meet about 20 people a week, roughly three people a day.

Unless you're in sales, 20 people a week is a crowd. Some weeks, when I'm trying to meet a deadline, I might not see 20 people. I might have to start introducing myself to strangers while pushing my cart through Kroger. None of this occurred to me as I pulled into my driveway. I had convinced myself it was doable.

In my journal a few days later, I note my plan. Do I reflect on my motives? I do not. It's a stunt, ginned up not for this writing assignment but as a little challenge for myself. Or something. I was like a kid jumping from a high diving board-if I thought about the distance I was about to fly, I'd never take that step into the air. Of course, when you leap, the drop to blue water happens so fast, you don't have time to work out a rationale. Suddenly, you're seeing bubbles and bobbing to the surface. But this was no launch into gravity's inevitability. It was a journey.

I just didn't know where to.