Day 2(?) - Taking pictures with strangers
I had this set up for Saturday night, but then I discussed with my housemate and realised it is completely normal to take photos with other drunk people, and I risked scaring people if they were just walking around on their own. I don't want to do something normal, and I don't want to scare people for my own benefit, so instead I went out this morning to a market in town.
My gut reaction was 'focus on men, focus on middle aged people', simply because I struggle to approach women, especially young, attractive women, and I expected I would look like a creep if I asked them. So the first person I approached was an older gent who seemed confused, but was happy to take a picture. Next I bought a bottle of water for a homeless guy and, seeing an opportunity, asked him as well - he was so grateful for the water that he didn't even hesitate and pulled a wide grin!
At this point, I decided "enough of being a wimp, time to approach a woman". I saw a lady walking a dog, on the younger end of middle aged, and decided she would be a perfect target. She was positively excited at the prospect of taking a picture with a stranger (and I took one with her dog as well, who was called Noodle) and made me more comfortable with the approaching part. My fourth victim was a local waiter, smoking a cigarette before the restaurant opened. He was a good looking dude so I complimented his style before asking, and he complimented me right back! Lovely guy, also down for a photo.
I decided my last one simply had to be a young woman, I want to make myself uncomfortable with this challenge. I looked around for someone more plain, who perhaps wouldn't be approached as often, because I didn't want to be rejected (my winning streak was going to my head and I forgot the challenge), but then remembered I was supposed to be uncomfortable. I looked around for the most attractive lass I could see (who I could say with certainty was definitely over 21, for safety, didn't want to risk accidentally chatting up a minor), and walked up to her. She seemed like she was very used to being approached by guys in all kinds of situations so I got the "go ahead, shoot your shot so I can reject you" face. I asked and she seemed bewildered. Evidently her thought process was "Why does he want a picture with me? Is he a creep or just really innocent?", so I jumped in with an explanation, and she happily obliged. Embarrassingly, my camera decided to stop working at this point, and it took me about 20 seconds to open the damn thing - but eventually I managed and finished my day 2(?) challenge!
What did I learn? I expected to get a lot of weird looks, and I did in some cases, but everyone was actually really friendly once they knew I didn't have some ulterior motive! I think the way that I approached people probably influenced their levels of suspicion, it's amazing what you can achieve with a small change to communication styles.
Finally I learnt that dogs are as amazing as I always knew, and approaching attractive women is still f***ing terrifying, but I can see it getting easier with practice.
