By: Kara Haselton

#HofHHS

If you follow us on Twitter or Instagram, you probably see this hashtag a lot. You see it tied to pictures of students you recognize from around school. Or maybe you’ve never seen them before.

That’s the point.

You might scroll past the picture and think nothing of it, or you might take the time to read their little story that follows the picture.

Either way, we want you to notice it. Notice that it exists.

Personally, I have always been impressed with and fascinated by the Humans of New York movement started by Brandon Stanton.* The fact that he is able to talk to so many different kinds of people, hear their stories, and share them is astounding. He makes them feel like they matter, and expands our perspectives by sharing it with us. The movement helps the average person to come to the realization that it’s not just about us. The world doesn’t revolve around me. I’m not the only one with an interesting life and story. I’m not the only one that has experienced hardship and joy and laughter and remorse. The person you pass on the street has a complicated, intricate, important life just as you and me. We all were born into a world in which we’re surrounded by people, yet we tend to feel isolated and alone. But this movement helps to break down that barrier a little bit, if we let it. Brandon Stanton shows that people just want a friend, they want to talk, and they will if you take the time to listen.

While we’re only in high school and haven’t lived as much a full life as some of the people featured on HoNY, we’re still humans. We might be younger, with less life experiences and less chances to succeed or be disappointed, but we have lived. There are different memories and stories that we have, waiting to be shared. But we deem them unimportant, irrelevant, too passionate, dorky, weird, continually insert negative adjectives.

But we want to hear them.

I can almost guarantee you that there is someone else who will relate. It may not be me, it may not be half the school, but someone.

We want to hear about that time you got stuck in a laundry shoot. We want to hear how the Gaming Academy has changed your life. We want to hear how you want to run for president. We want to hear how you accidentally got two guys arrested when you were eight. We want to hear how you’re passionate about singing. We want to hear how you find joy in making people happy. We want to hear about how you’re passionate about feminism.

We want to hear your stories and how you tell them.

No one else can live your life for you or feel deeply about the things for which you care.

But we want you to tell us about it.

So if you are unaware of what Humans of HHS is, and this is new to you–Awesome. Please get involved! Do you have a great story you want to share? DM us on Twitter.

Do you think you don’t have any interesting stories? You’re wrong.

Do you know of a friend or teacher that you think would be awesome to talk to? Let us know.

Do you want to participate, but are afraid of doing it yourself? Get a group of friends together! Make it a party!

Our goal is to simply unify our school on the basis that we’re all humans living in the same place at the same time. How cool is that?

*For more info follow @humansofny on Instagram or Twitter. Or Google it.