Navdeep’s sign holding!

I decided to make a sign that says “Wanna Race?” The purpose is to get people to loosen up and be playful. Everyone has a competitive side to them, so I thought this sign would be a playful challenge, and get people to be interactive with a complete stranger. I wanted this challenge to be something unexpected and spontaneous at the same time.

Wanna Race??

My Experience

I originally thought that a few people would respond positively to my sign, and would actually race me. I thought that if a few people raced me, others around would follow the example and have the same response. However, this wasn’t really the case, a lot of people ignored me or told me that it was too cold. The people who did race me were all very friendly and at first were confused about what I was asking. I told some that I was really cold and others that it was for a school assignment. Every single person questioned me, instead of simply giving me a simple “Yes”. I thought that people would just do it spontaneously without really needing a long explanation. I guess people wanted an explanation because it’s human nature to question everything and ask why. It was really cold when I did my sign holding and a lot of people just wanted to get indoors ASAP, which could be another reason for the lack of responses. I originally wanted to look like a runner and not wear a winter coat, but it was way too cold. If I were to do this again, I would keep the same sign, but I would definitely do it on a warmer day and I would dress the part. I would also change locations, maybe move to Bay Street to see how the business people would respond and possibly U of T. This time I couldn’t stop smiling; I don’t know if that worked as an advantage or disadvantage. So next time, I would definitely try to be more serious!

Wanna Race? from navdeep sahota on Vimeo.

Attempting to stretch