How a misstep while walking home one night changed my life

In my younger and more inexperienced years I was, as many people are, not so sure about what I was going to do with my life. I'd made some life changing choices like switching from law school to photo journalism and I'd started working for newspapers and magazines. But, although fun and very interesting, it still didn’t really feel like it was what I was supposed to do.

I was looking to make my mark somehow, to contribute in a clearer way to society. It sounds vague and that was what it was for me too, back then.

How a misstep changed my life

Every once in a while I returned to my old University town Utrecht for a bender with old friends. Walking home that night I somehow misplaced my foot and regrettably fell flat on my face. I decided to just stick it out for a while on the curb and reflect on this new perspective on life. Which in fact turned out to be much more philosophical than I thought it would be.

"I was looking to make my mark somehow, to contribute in a clearer way to society."

What do we share?

Looking at the tile in front of my face I started wondering who had put their foot down on it today. Who were they, where were they going to, what was on their minds? Things that I would understand? Places I knew or would get to know in the future? In other words: in what way was I connected to all those people who put their foot down on the tile I had just hit with my face..? And that’s when it hit me: I should try to meet those people in the streets, see what happens in their lives and show what it is that we share together!

Streets of the World really is my personal story

Being slightly inebriated and therefore just a bit megalomaniac, I thought it would be a good idea to do that in all capitals of the world, why not?

It not only seemed like a really good idea lying there on the curb, it still did when I woke up the next afternoon with a smashing headache. I decided there and then that this would become my story. I named it Streets of the World.