Interview: Rie Ohta, CMU Strangers Project
Founded in 2020 by Fifth Year Scholar, Rie Ohta, the CMU Strangers Project solicits anonymous, hand-written notes from members of the Carnegie Mellon University community, with the goal of creating a virtual safe space in which we can share our stories and forge stronger connections.
First off, tell us a little bit about yourself!
My name is Rie Ohta, and I majored in computer science with a minor in psychology at CMU! I am deeply involved with C# Singers a cappella, and have also participated in Dancer’s Symposium and One Night in Beijing. I grew up near Cupertino, California – a proud San Francisco Bay Area native. One fun fact about me is that I studied abroad in London during spring 2019 and ended up traveling to around 15 different countries in that one semester!
What inspired you to start the CMU Strangers Project?
I was inspired to start this project because I’ve always been such a huge fan of the original Strangers Project in New York – I’ve loved the ways in which it has brought strangers together in physical and digital spaces to sit with the same stories. That project made me realize that there’s so much shared humanity in each of us and a story that one person shares can resonate with others in so many different ways. At the same time, I was thinking about the CMU community and the fact that I have gotten to encounter so many amazing people during my time here who have similar yet different experiences and wishing that there was a way for us all to get to share our experiences and our stories. There are underlying facets of being human and being a part of the CMU community that tie us together in ways we don’t fully realize, I think, and I was hoping this project might be able to help capture some of those connections and give people the chance to reflect a bit on their experiences. I’m incredibly grateful for the Fifth Year Scholar program at CMU for allowing me to bring this project to campus!
There are underlying facets of being human and being a part of the CMU community that tie us together in ways we don’t fully realize...and I was hoping this project might be able to help capture some of those connections and give people the chance to reflect a bit on their experiences.
What’s your favorite thing about this project?
I really love the reception that I get from people – with the pandemic and classes and all, it’s been difficult to get too many stories, but without fail I get such positive feedback from everyone I talk to about the project itself and it reminds me that we do all really love hearing each other’s stories. We want to know that we aren’t alone in our struggles and we want to celebrate each other’s joys, even if we have no idea who the face on the other side of the words is.
What are some challenges you’ve faced?
The vast majority of this project has been carried through during this pandemic – I wanted to start on it during my fourth year, but I ended up being busier than I anticipated with my coursework since I was finishing up my degree at the time. The pandemic has been difficult for me personally as I’m sure it has been for everyone, which meant that I had to reevaluate where I felt I could put my mental energy since I was definitely feeling that constant mild stress and anxiety that came with the pandemic. This impacted my motivation to figure out how to carry through with my project while still managing coursework and adjusting to this virtual world.
All of that internal struggle on top of actually adapting this project to an online world and finding avenues to promote and share it meant that I definitely haven’t collected nearly as many stories as I would have liked, but once I was able to fall into more of a routine and become accustomed to pandemic life, I was still able to find partnerships and collect stories via my Google Form. I’m immensely grateful for my project advisor alongside friends and other members of the CMU community who have continued to show enthusiasm and support for me and my project, even when I felt like I didn’t have the energy to continue working on something that I wasn’t even sure there was an audience for.
I’ve (re)learned the importance of sharing my own stories...[W]e’re all going through similar yet different experiences. I want to hear other’s stories, whether they be serious or silly, happy or sad, and that’s a two-way street – others want to hear my story too!
What have you learned from this project?
To some degree, I’ve learned exactly what I expected – people have stories to share and people love to hear others’ stories. There’s an incredible degree of resonance and relatability that comes with almost every single story, and I’ve loved seeing some of these common threads of friendship, joys, struggles, and overall human experience through the project.
More personally, I’ve (re)learned the importance of sharing my own stories. This entire project and process are a part of my story, and working on it has reminded me that sharing this project is almost like sharing part of my story. I’ve found the energy to keep going because sharing this project, my story, encourages others to share theirs, which reminds me that we’re all going through similar yet different experiences. I want to hear other’s stories, whether they be serious or silly, happy or sad, and that’s a two-way street – others want to hear my story too!
What are your long-term goals for the project?
I would love for the project to continue on through current CMU students and/or with the Mindfulness Room! At this point, I would love to continue working on the project by collecting stories virtually, but I really loved the in-person collection aspect of the project which I can’t really do. Plus, I’ll be moving on to the next phase of my life and I would love for people closer to CMU in every moment to be able to help capture the stories of the CMU community. For now, my hope is that the lovely Angie Lusk, my project advisor, will find a way to integrate at least some of the existing stories into our new wellness center at CMU and that the Instagram page can serve as a time capsule for the past year.
I want people to know that in a lot of ways, this isn’t a special project – it’s just an invitation for people to share their stories with each other, and that’s something we can all do every single day with ourselves and others in our lives!
What’s one thing you really want people to know about the CMU Strangers Project?
I want people to know that in a lot of ways, this isn’t a special project – it’s just an invitation for people to share their stories with each other, and that’s something we can all do every single day with ourselves and others in our lives! There are a million ways for us to share our stories and discover others’ stories, and I was just hoping for the CMU Strangers Project to give our community one avenue.
Where can people find you and how can they submit a story?
People can find me and the project on Instagram at @weohtabefriends (personal) and @cmustrangersproject (project)! I’m always happy to respond to DMs about the project, my experiences at CMU, and pretty much anything else. If people want to submit a story, they can go to the link in the bio of @cmustrangersproject which takes you to this Google Form: tinyurl.com/cmustrangersproject.