Reflections on 2013

Hey Friends,

2013 was a year full of a lot of new and crazy rides.  It was cool to be living it in my shoes.  In the beginning of the year I was working on finishing writing the rough drafts of my Free Hugs: It's More Than A Campaign--It's A Lifestyle book.  During my winter quarter at DePaul University, I went about the self publishing process with the help of Outskirts Press, a self publishing company.  I spent more money getting the book published than I have made back from book sales so far, but I think that the process of getting a book published and distributed via Amazon and other outlets was well worth the investment.  Having a book published about Free Hugs gives me a lifelong product to help generate information and revenue for my free hugs projects.  It also shows my dedication to my free hugs projects.

I used the money that I did earn from book sales in order to go on a Free Hugs Tour during my summer break.  I took public transportation to get to most of the places that I toured.  This was a very new and different experience than traveling around the country via car.  I had to depend a lot more on other people and met more people due to the increased amount of people that I came into contact with.   My tour was planned for the whole summer (26 cities in just under 90 days- June 12-September 8), I only was able to complete about half of it (13 cities in about 45 days) before I was drained of money, and emotionally drained.  On this trip I gave away about 2500 hugs and most of the trip is documented earlier in this blog.  Near the end, I found it harder and harder to set aside the time and write about it.  At the time I was really devastated that I couldn't muster up the strength to finish out the tour.  After I thought about it for a while though, 90 days of straight traveling and Free Hugging without much rest time was a bad idea.  I learned that smaller trips and planning free time not including Free Hugging as the prime motive is key for my Free Hugs tours.  Even though I failed greatly in my original plan, I learned a lot on this tour, met a lot of new and amazing people.  Each failure is a stepping stone on the road to success. As Robert F. Kennedy once said, "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." I think I am in a good place.

I abruptly ended my tour the first couple days of August.  This also allowed me to attend my brothers 18th birthday party with his and my long time friends at Medieval Times.  At the end of August I found a job helping out at an after school program.  It has been a blessing to be a part of the After School Care team.  This next year I will actually be teaching an entrepreneurship class to some of the middle schoolers, sharing my passion for entrepreneurship and growing in my academic, entrepreneurship knowledge.  This is my major at DePaul University so it will also fit right in with my classes and help me organize and build my entrepreneurial endeavors.  More on this to be included in my next post about what 2014 brings with the new year.

Speaking of entrepreneurial endeavors... in October of this year I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Search 7 retreat brought about by Catholic Campus Ministry at DePaul University.  This retreat was one of the greatest retreats that I have ever been on.  It allowed me to search for what I was searching for, very specific i know, but that is all I can tell you.  It was a great 'retreat' from the real world grind, and allowed me to refocus in a quarter full of writing and stress.  From that experience, a friend of mine and I came up with an idea.  This idea is named 'Penny Bets'.  It's pretty self explanatory, you bet someone something for a penny.  This can range from anything across the board, but just bet it for a penny.  Once you have a lot of pennies, you donate the funds to a charity of ones choosing.  I was talking with some friends about Penny Bets when they challenged me to create a website and an app for penny bets to increase its impact.  Therefore, I am currently working on designing and developing a Penny Bet website and mobile application.   More information to follow as well.

Stay tuned for an organized blog post with all of the projects and endeavors that I will be starting and working on in 2014 that I am aware of thus far into the year!

Hugs,
David Melia (Professional Free Hugger)