Packing!!!

As I sit down and write this post, I just got back from white water rafting in Maryland with my best friends Chad and his dad,Charlie,my brother Stephen,and my dad. It was a great trip!! The rapids were awesome! We almost fell a couple times. We didn't though. There was a raft on our trip that threw 3 of the 4 people into the river though. That was pretty cool and funny to watch. :D
Before that I went on vacation with my family to Universal Studios in Orlando for 4 days. Pretty fun stuff. Anyway, on to the interesting stuff. I leave for my trip in 12 days so I have to start packing. Packing is pretty chaotic because I have to make sure I have everything all organized and take the minimal amount of things so that I have space in my car to be comfortable. It is a bit scary because it's going to be such a new experience and I am going to have to get used to it but I am also really excited. I am going to go make a video about all the stuff that I am going to take with me and how I have to organize it all and fun stuff like that. Be sure to check it out! Thanks for all your support!

Free Hugging Trip!

So I have my preliminary itinerary so far for my trip! I did a video of it if you would like to watch that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPnMTKcWqeg
or here is the itinerary: We start out in Chicago.
Then I go out to Nashville for a concert
then New York (Pottersville, Red Neck, New York City)
maybe stop in Washington DC on my way to
North Carolina (Chapel Hill)
Tennessee (Nashville and Memphis)
Kansas (Sedgwick and Wichita)
Colorado (Denver)
maybe stop somewhere in Idaho
then on to Washingon (Spokane, Seattle, Auburn, Bellevue)
Oregon (Portland)
California (San Francisco, Los Angeles)
Arizona (Tucson and Pheonix)
New Mexico (Albuquerque)
Texas (Austin, Houston, Kennedale)
Georgia (Athens, other places)
Florida (Orlando)
Then visit Chicago on my way to Maine :D
That is what I have so far so tell me what you think?! :D
Also If you want me to visit somewhere that is not on this list, and hug me, lets make it work. :D
So yeah. Also I got my car today!!!!! and I went free hugging today and yesterday. Yesterday I got 65 hugs and today I got 159 hugs and handed out a total of 95 free hugs business cards between the two days. I am planning to leave September 4th sometime during the day so Watch out world David Melia is on the road!!

Road trip mission statement

My passion for human interaction and yearning to make a positive difference in others lives has prompted me to explore America through a road trip.  I hope to spread love, peace, and happiness (brightening lives one hug at a time) through my adventures as a Professional Free Hugger. This trip will also provide time for me to engage in self exploration and develop meaningful connections, and experiences that will have an influential part in my future life.

OOOHhh YEahh.

So today I mailed a couple of packages to some people that bought some stuff on ebay from me and then I went downtown to go Free Hugging with my amazing friend Morgan! While free hugging with Morgan we got a total of 65 hugs in 2 hours!! 40 of those hugs we got in the first 20 minutes because we ran into a group of Vlogers from youtube and the Nerd Fighters I think they were called from the Vlog Brothers. It was amazingly cool to be around a group of amazing people that were so open to the act of hugging! I got to give them all my awesome Professional Free Hugger Business cards! (Which I just realized... don't actually have my email address on them... I should put that on in future cards because I told a bunch of people to email me and stuff so all I can hope for is that they come to this blog and read this post where they will learn that they can email me at duckductdave@gmail.com or leave comments and stuff so we can get in touch because those people were awesome!!) Sooo yeah. After free hugging I went to see a few of my friends Olivia, Hannah, and Alaina sing at our church. It was really amazing awesome fun! Total over the day I met tons of awesome cool people and hope to get to know them more!!
In other news, I sent in my Month at the Museum application a couple days ago, and I think I made a pretty good application so wish me the best! :D I also am selling my duct tape items on ebay and www.etsy.com/shop/duckductdave to get money for my gap year road trip! Thanks for all your support and Have a great Night! (or day if your reading this in the day time) :D
Lots of Hugs! <3 David

Duct Tape Funness!!

So lately I have been busy making duct tape items and improving my inventory so that I can actually have some product to sell. It has been going pretty well. Right now I have about 50 items for sale between etsy.com and ebay. I haven't gotten anything sold through the online postings yet but hopefully as I make more interesting items and learn how to market my products better, I will be able to make money to support myself on my road trip. Thanks for your support!
David

Free Hugging 7/1/2011

I went free hugging with my friend Ethan yesterday. We went to the Taste of Chicago and walked around Michigan Ave. and Millennium Park. Over the whole day we gave away 120 hugs!! I know this thanks to my awesome and amazing free hugs counter. :D
I also had a new twist while giving away hugs yesterday (other than the fact that I had a friend with me hugging), I had made Professional Free Hugger business cards therefore making me more of a professional! It was really cool to be able to say "Hey look I have a business card that says I am a professional free hugger so I am legit and professional" more or less, but not in those exact words. I found it a good way to introduce people into the idea of free hugging and the vision that I have and why I give them away. On the side of the left side of the business card is a quote in cyan from Leo Buscaglia which reads "Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around" I hope that this card will allow people to look beyond just the hug and think about the reasons behind offering free hugs. You can not receive a hug without giving a hug so as much as the other person needs a hug, I need their hug to. I am grateful for every hug I receive and I hope that every one that I hug is grateful for the hug that they receive from me.

While I was free hugging I met a family to whom I gave everyone hugs and handed out my Free Hugger business card and they loved it and one of the children, about 9 or 10 said "Your a good person, Thank you!" and everyone was happy. Another member of the family told me that I had really brightened their day. It's for those moments that I give away free hugs. Thank you for brightening MY day by complimenting me. It all goes back to Leo Buscaglia's quote.... What can I say... It's a good quote. :D

VIDEOS!!!

I like videos. So today I started my Video Blog, or Vlog on youtube. :D Here is the link to see my first video blog post!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwhEGPgURoA
It's not the greatest but hopefully as I go on I will get more comfortable in front of the Camera or video recorder thing and the quality of the content and everything will be better and more interesting. I had a lot of trouble getting up the strength to start up the Vlog. It's scary putting yourself out their like that.
In order to improve my comfortability in front of the video camera I have decided that I am going to post small videos on all of my Facebook friends walls. Even the ones who I never talk to. All of them. This will not only give me exposure to the video camera thingy but will also allow me to grow my connection skills with others. Also it just gives me a nice feeling inside. Wish me luck!!! :D Follow my Vlog and this Blog because I am a relatively decent and interesting guy... I think. Thanks be to you!

Get off my Chest.

I talk a lot about how awesome my trip is going to be and living in a car and everything. Truth is, it scares me a crap ton as well. I mean tons of stuff could go wrong. Like the fact that I don't have much money and don't have enough to put a down payment on a car. Or the fact that people don't think its a good idea or I can't do it or its too dangerous or something like that. I admit, it's a risk, but I think it's a good risk.
It's the kind of risk that separates the great from the ordinary, people that change the world from the people that just live in the world, the people that really live and love life from the people that are limited by their fear of the future, or of failure. Yes it's scary and unconventional but as George Bernard Shaw said “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” I agree with this statement 110 percent. I'll make mistakes, I will mess up, I won't always be safe, but isn't that the point? That your not going to be safe. Life is about adventure. Life is about the moments that take your breath away, life is about the risks you take because you care, and you love. Life is about going out there and achieving your dreams no matter what the cost. I don't care if you don't think I can achieve my dreams. I don't care if you don't believe in me. I believe in myself and nothing that anyone says is going to change that. I believe that their is a higher purpose in this trip other than just because I want to. There are personal reasons I want to go on this trip. It's not just for my personal gain (which I believe I will gain a lot from this trip) but it's for the people that I will meet, the adventures in my future, and changing the world. I think God is calling me to something big and this trip is the start I believe. I believe in a better world. I believe that anything can happen. Do you?

The need to write.

Rainer Maria Rilke once said "Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write."
I have graduated from high school 8 days ago so naturally all I have been doing is sitting around and watching tv shows on Netflix. While doing this I have thought about writing and how much I enjoy it. I love writing. I really do. It helps clear your mind when it is full of crap and clutter. It's like organizing a really messy house, the house being where the mind lives... in the brain.. if that makes any sense. Even though I love to write and have taken many courses in school that have been focused on writing, I haven't dug deep down and found the "reason that commands (me) to write...that I would die if I were forbidden to write". I have felt better after writing and more organized but I have not taken the time to sit down and write whats on my mind for a while. I like to blame school for taking up all of my time with pointless exercises and assignments, but it's not entirely schools fault. I haven't taken the time to sit down and write. I hope that with this confession I will be able to take more time to sit down and write about my thoughts and engage with my audience, and hopefully become more organized with my beliefs. Here is to a fresh start.

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer." Rainer Maria Rilke

School

It's getting towards the end of the year and there are a lot of school projects and things that I have to get finished, which is why I haven't written a blog post in a while. I have not yet had a chance to peddle with my peddlers license yet but I am working on decking out my awesome peddling thingy. Hopefully it will be done soon and I will post some pictures!!
:David