In 2006 Oprah conducted
an interview with Juan Mann, the founder of the “Free Hugs Campaign.” Free Hugs is a campaign that started when Juan Mann came back to his home country
of Australia, walked through the Sydney airport unaccompanied with desires of
embrace or friendly recognition; he felt alone and hopeless. Instead of rolling in his own sadness, he
acted (proactivity, one of my favorite characteristics) and did this:
“I'd been living
in London when my world turned upside down and I'd had to come home. By the
time my plane landed back in Sydney, all I had left was a carry on bag full of
clothes and a world of troubles. No one to welcome me back, no place to call
home. I was a tourist in my hometown.
Standing there
in the arrivals terminal, watching other passengers meeting their waiting
friends and family, with open arms and smiling faces, hugging and laughing
together, I wanted someone out there to be waiting for me. To be happy to see
me. To smile at me. To hug me.
So I got some
cardboard and a marker and made a sign. I found the busiest pedestrian
intersection in the city and held that sign aloft, with the words "Free
Hugs" on both sides.
And for 15
minutes, people just stared right through me. The first person who stopped,
tapped me on the shoulder and told me how her dog had just died that morning.
How that morning had been the one year anniversary of her only daughter dying
in a car accident. How what she needed now, when she felt most alone in the
world, was a hug. I got down on one knee, we put our arms around each other and
when we parted, she was smiling.
Everyone
has problems and for sure mine haven't compared. But to see someone who was
once frowning, smile even for a moment, is worth it every time.”
I empathized with his feeling of
loneliness and of reward. The Oprah interview
touched my heart in some confusing way that made me want to emulate his
goodwill. I was a (back-to-school)
student at Georgia Institute of Technology at that time and with the
recruitment of a friend, I embarked on my first Free Hugs afternoon. Still don’t know what I’m talking about? Here, watch this video: