Remainder

Name: Anonymous
Age: 61, almost 62
Job: Carpenter
Location: Lower East Side

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future OR would you change anything from your past?

Yeah, I would like that I didn't get hit in Vietnam. I'm a Vietnam veteran. I only look back on two things in my life. One, I didn't go with the garbage men. The sanitation. But I have a trade, I'm a carpenter. [Sanitation] was a good job, but it wasn't meant for me.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

Raising my daughters. My daughters are in college. The next thing is maybe...they're gonna go on with their life, that's all paid for and all this. My next most important thing is maybe getting a boat. A small boat, not a big boat - I can't afford a big boat. Because a boat is like taking your money and throwing it in a hole in the water. And I can't say nuttin' about girls or women or nuttin' like that because I'm married. I think I'm pretty successful with everything other than that. I would love to hit lotto. I'm talking about if I hit big - I would make some of my friends fortunate, to do something. Have a brand new car, stuff like that, if I ever hit that. I'm not a real religious man, but I'd probably give the church something. Al Queda, I'm for Al Queda. (Laughs) No, don't put that shit, I'm a Vietnam veteran. No, I ain't for that shit, I'm American, all the way, 100 percent.

3. How do you imagine your future?

I figure at the rate I'm going I'll be dead...I'm gonna be 62, I'll be dead, probably within the next week OR I'll go to 80. My destiny is 80. I wanna hit 80. I don't know if I'm gonna hit 80, but...I'm in pretty good shape and everything, but I haven't had a physical in 30 years.



Name: Matthew
Age: 17
Job: Student
Location: Upper West Side

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future OR would you change anything from your past?

Probably a more solid base of friends. I know - the friends that would just like to hang around, you know, shoot the shit and throw a Frisbee and throw a football…you know what, maybe not the friends, it's the time to do that. That's it - it's the time and the circumstance to just be a kid.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

Figuring out myself…that's vague…you know, I guess it's really cultivating my own interests so I can be happy, so I can find something [that] I'll work hard at…but it won't be hard work, because I'll love what I'll be doing. Finding that interest and cultivating myself to find that interest.

3. How do you imagine your future?

First option - I become a farmer and play at jazz clubs at night. Scratch the farmer part - whatever I do I'll be playing at jazz clubs at night, I'll be playing jazz piano at night, with people, and I'll be having a blast doing that. And whatever I do during the day, it'll include using my body and my brain. My dream future is that I won't be sitting behind a desk doing mundane, stupid stuff. I'll be using my body the way it was meant to be used, for work and such. That kind of points me in the direction of being a farmer, I have yet to see.



Name: James/Jimmy
Age: 65
Job: Helps out a friend at Coney Island
Location: Coney Island

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future OR would you change anything from your past?

I'd change nothing.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

Waking up every morning - surviving.

3. How do you imagine your future?

I really don't know. After 66, there's not too much to remember. You don't know how much longer you're going to last.



Name: Scott Peterson
Age: 52
Job: Firefighter
Location: Lower East Side

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future OR would you change anything from your past?

Yes - my old girlfriend Cathy Giannetto. Broke my heart. Broke my heart! My life has been somewhat of a, a little bit of a void since you left me. I would never have cheated on Cathy Giannetto! Or I would've covered my tracks a little bit better and I wouldn't have gotten caught.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

My son John.

3. How do you imagine your future?

I imagine me dumping my wife and hooking up with Cathy Giannetto! (You want the truth? I'm giving you the truth.)



Name: Jose
Age: 53
Job: Disabled
Location: Coney Island

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future OR would you change anything from your past?

I would change a lot from my past…I'm not going to go into details, but I would change a lot.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

Family. I've got a son, he's 12. My parents are still alive and I got one remaining sister. I got plenty of nieces and nephews. They're my immediate family, of course. 'Cause I've been away from them for…years.

3. How do you imagine your future?

I try not to think about it too much. I take it a day at a time.



Name: Janette
Age: 37
Job: Does research over the phone, cleans houses in her spare time (for extra money)
Location: Union Square

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future OR would you change anything from your past?

I would change a lot in my past - a lot. Well, I made a lot of mistakes in my past. I didn't finish school. I don't regret my children but I just wish I would've finished school so I could've had a better life and provided more for them. It's not too late - I can go back to school, but being a single mom, and having to work two jobs, and provide for them…it's like I'm always looking for the time, and then something happens and I have to stay working, because if not the bills will pile up, and so on and so on.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

I would have to say, my kids. My children are. You know, it's funny, because the past couple of days I've just been trying to - I just - at 37, I still don't know who I am, and I wanna know who I am, what's my purpose. I know there has to be a purpose. And…it's just…it just has to…it's just a lot of soul-searching, I don't know where to start. And I guess when I find…I'm hoping that the sooner I realize that, the happier I can be with myself.

3. How do you imagine your future?

See…I can't…right now I don't…that's the problem. I…I don't know what my future holds. And that's why I guess I'm at this age now and it's starting, you know, I took so much for granted, always thinking I had time, school wasn't important - I just was living too fast and…and now I just…I don't know. I don't know. I'm sorry I don't have an answer, I truly, honestly, like, I really don't know. That's why I'm just trying to find myself. I was walking through the park earlier just wondering…what am I here for? I really need to find that out. A part of me says go back to school, but then reality sets in and, I mean, I can't! I have an 11 year old daughter and I have a 16 year old son.



Name: Michael
Age: 21
Job: New York City Parks Officer
Location: Coney Island

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future OR would you change anything from your past?

I wish I didn't total my car like 3 months ago. I would like my car back.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

My mother.

3. How do you imagine your future?

Living in Sweden, being a professional stage manager. I've been to Sweden to play soccer for an international soccer team that I played on, and I lived there for a while. I like it a lot, it's a beautiful country, I'm learning the language, and they have a really, really nice theatrical business.



Name: Brendan Spieth
Age: 22
Job: Just graduated college (Theater major)
Location: Upper West Side

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future OR would you change anything from your past?

Well, I wouldn't change anything. You know what, if I could have anything from my past, I used to have this silver astronaut jacket when I was three, and I used to just wear it all the time and feel like a rock star. If I could have that, I think I'd be pretty complete.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

Direction, I guess. After graduating you've got all these tools and fun things, and now, where to? Where do we go? I guess finding direction is now the most important thing.

3. How do you imagine your future?

I imagine it to be or hope it'll be…sparkly, very fun and open and curious and squirrely. I want to be as creative and fun as I was on the first day of kindergarten until the day I kick it.



Name: Monika
Age: 59, almost 60
Job: Running the High Striker at Coney Island
Location: Coney Island

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future OR would you change anything from your past?

No, no, I chose this life, I'm happy where I've been and I'm thrilled where I am.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

Making the money - aside from my children. Children are everything. That's why I'm out here making the money! I have 7 children, from 38 down to 13. And grandchildren that are costly. 5 of 'em.

3. How do you imagine your future?

Working, just like I am now. I thought I'd be in that rocking chair, but it's not happening. I had a child late in life, and he wants his everything that the other kids got. So there it is.



Name: Stephanie Brooks
Age: 36
Job: Teacher
Location: Upper West Side

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future OR would you change anything from your past?

I'd like to travel a lot more and now I'm not traveling so much, and I'd like to start to travel more to exotic destinations.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

Feeling at peace.

3. How do you imagine your future?

Being happy and healthy and having a few children and a husband and smiling a lot!



Name: Elliot Schwartz
Age: 60
Job: Photographer, head of a sculpture studio in DUMBO
Location: Brooklyn Bridge Park (DUMBO)

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future OR would you change anything from your past?

Not my hair…no, everything from my past is in my present.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

My 4 1/2 year old son.

3. How do you imagine your future?

Working until I drop.



Name: Kevin
Age: 26
Job: International pageant winners' personal trainer (but he can't reveal any names)
Location: High Street - Brooklyn Bridge Station

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future OR would you change anything from your past?

Maybe I'd like to have a cat again. That'd be fun.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

My studies.

3. How do you imagine your future?

Hopefully working professionally in the field that I am currently studying.