Matt Kulesza is on a mission — to meet every one of the 1000+ friends he has on Facebook.

His motives are simple. The project is “an exercise in remembering to socialise with and get to know people outside of the ‘book and a celebration of the individual humans I’ve had the pleasure of meeting throughout my life so far,” which is something most of us don’t do often enough.

Named 1000+ Coffees, Kulesza’s project involves hitting up friends old and new to chat with them one-on-one over a cup of coffee. He plans to take as long as it is necessary to meet every single person, and no one is excluded. He’s met up with ex-lovers, best friends, people who he’d only met once, people who he’d never met before; even cats. And he still has a long way to go — it’s been a little over a year since the start of the project, and between his busy schedule he’s been able to meet 71 Facebook friends so far.

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Source: 1000+ Coffees

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Source: 1000+ Coffees

He writes in great detail about each of his ‘coffee dates,’ and by doing so he gives us a glimpse into his past, his present, and how he and the people in his network have changed over the years.

His project truly exemplifies the fact that every person we meet and communicate with — no matter how briefly — affects us in some way, and our memories of them remain with us much stronger than we realize.

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Source: 1000+ Coffees

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Source: 1000+ Coffees

In a world that now feels infinitely more small because of the internet, we often forget we need to devote a huge bulk of our time and energy toward our interpersonal relationships, and that they should be nurtured through actual human contact, not just with a click of a finger.

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Source: 1000+ Coffees

So go ahead, try messaging an old friend you haven’t caught up with in far too long, or maybe even that random guy you said two words to at someone’s high school party. You never know — they might be the people you need in your life right now.


By - grape Japan editorial staff.