In 2016, the Minneapolis Parks Foundation teamed up with Humans of Minneapolis street documentarian Stephanie Glaros to produce a series of 15 portraits of visitors to Minneapolis neighborhood parks.

Here, we’re re-posting Stephanie’s series of portraits of parks visitors from her Humans of Minneapolis blog. Look for all portraits in the series on this blog – 2016 and, coming soon, 2017 – by clicking on the Humans of Minneapolis category.

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Brenda & Pedro, at Fair Oaks Park

“Everybody goes to the lakes, but I like coming to this park. It’s nice that it’s only two blocks away from me, and it’s so quiet and peaceful and shaded. I usually come here with my dog and listen to my audiobook, or just sit here and relax. It’s different than the other city parks. There’s not a playground. I don’t have children and it’s nice that there aren’t kids running around distracting me from being in a peaceful state. That could be a pro or a con, but for me it’s a pro.

I joined the Army Reserves for college money. It was a great experience because of the people that I met and the places that I got to go. Mostly it’s the camaraderie that I miss. You get close with people in a short amount of time in a really intimate kind of way. They see you at your worst and you don’t know them that well. They’re lasting friendships if you find them.

My friends and I kind of joke about it, but there’s a slogan called ‘Army of One.’ You’re one soldier, but everybody combined together makes the Army. Your actions affect everybody else’s. They really make you realize that when you’re in basic training. So I try to live my life like that every day. It sounds far-fetched to go from one to the other because it’s two completely different worlds, but it made me realize that your individual actions have a huge effect on everybody else.”

Listen to Brenda’s story:

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Images and content are reposted with permission from Stephanie Glaros/Humans of Minneapolis.