Boston University Free Hugs Friday!

Last Friday when I was in Boston I had the honor and pleasure to meet The Boston University Free Hug Fridayers!! It was really awesome to meet such a great group of people that is dedicated to giving away free hugs every Friday to wish their fellow classmates a good Friday and weekend. I would just like to say that it was one of the greatest experiences, giving away free hugs with them. I am planning on visiting them again to be able to interview them for my Free Hugs Documentary. A way to get into the mind of a Free Hugger and try to understand the motivations behind the decisions to Free Hug and what it means to them. I am really excited about that. I am going to try and find some film majors to help capture some footage in different places. Hugs, David

Washington DC/ Boston!

Today (Thursday September 22, 2011) I got into Boston, well Medford actually but Tomorrow is Free Hugs Friday at Boston University!! I am really excited for free hugs friday... hopefully people show up.. It's supposed to rain tomorrow and that is worrying me, but hopefully it will be a good time and I can get some interviews for my free hugs documentary project. Hold up stop. Did he just? Yeah I said a free hugs documentary project. :D I have less than one year, a 7.1 megapixel camera, a broken tripod, my camera on my phone, and some duct tape to keep the tripod from not working and I think I am going to make a pretty awesome documentary. How you ask? That's a great question. I'll keep asking around. While I was in Washington D.C. well, it was raining and there weren't many people outside so it wasn't the greatest free hugging weather either.. I seem to be hitting all the bad weather here and its really rather inconvienent. Anywho, I got a readers card for researchers at the Library of Congress so I can look at books and stuff and do research there which is really cool. I also went to the United States Postal Museum which was pretty awesomely cool too. Very interesting how our mail is delivered and how it has changed over the years. Hopefully I will get some free hugs in Boston. I am beginning to get the hang of this traveling thing. Pretty exciting. Hugs! David

New York!!

SO I have been in New York for a few days now, since the 13th. On the 13th I tried going free hugging downtown and got 10 hugs, not too many but it was pretty okish. Then on the 14th I went to see Daniel Radcliff in a showing of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying which was a wonderful show. (Especially for the great price of $30!) Today I went and met a friend of mine who stayed at our house while he interned at LaSalle Street Church, Kyle Sandison. It was awesome to get to talk with him. It was even cooler because he was with me the day that I first learned about free hugs and saw people free hugging!! That was a historic day right there. As we were talking one of the quotes he showed me by C.S. Louis was really interesting. It went something like this: "It is a serious thing, to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no 'ordinary' people. You have never talked to a mere mortal." Which got me thinking about all of the different people that you meet off of the street. The smallest ideas or gestures could determine their whole future!! Imagine if those teenagers had never been free hugging on the street that my family and I were walking on to go and see the 5th Harry Potter Movie for my brothers birthday? I would be a completely different person!! What else is so crazy is that those huggers had no idea how much their act of offering Free Hugs impacted my life! Can you imagine a David Melia without free hugs? The tiniest moments, the meeting of someone on the street, the smile or hug of a stranger, the compliment or willingness to look silly really can make a difference. As I go out into the world and Free Hug I think about all of the times that others have impacted my life in brief moments that last a lot longer in memories and that is what keeps me going. It's the girl that wrote "Keep it up, your saving lives" on the back of my Free Hugs shirt when she was signing it, it's the lady who emailed me that she wasn't having the best time in Chicago and after passing me by a couple times, got a hug and her time in Chicago was saved because of that hug, it's those people that keep me going. It makes me wonder exactly how many lives I have touched? Those whom I don't know about, those who have experienced a change like I did when I first saw a free hugger. Those huggers have no idea how much their presence that day actually meant. It really makes you wonder, how much a small interaction on the street really can affect a life doesn't it? As Leo Buscaglia beautifully states: "Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn around a life" I challenge you not to underestimate the power of the smallest act of caring, to do something nice no matter how small to someone you meet on the street, someone you work with, someone you love. The smallest things make the biggest difference. Lots of Hugs! :David

Nashville

SOoo I am in Nashville!! Its rainy and I got here yesterday at 2 pm and it being labor day, all the cool places and resturants that I wanted to hang out at (namely Starbucks) were closed! SO yeah I walked around, got wet, tried to get a lay of the city. Nashville is a cool place, I think i would enjoy it more if it were sunny and there were more people out. But as I write this what's that? I GOT MY FIRST HUG!!!! IN NASHVILLE! THAT'S THE FIRST HUG OF MY TRIP!!! YIPEE!!! I think that hug just made my trip. That hug is the highlight. I love hugs. Alot. SO also I am going to the Tiffany Alvord Concert today. I am pretty excited. I have a meet and greet ticket which is cool. That is really exciting also. A hug can really have a difference on one's outlook on the world. I would also like to point out that I got that hug at Starbucks.. so yeah Cool right? Yeah I know. Anywho's I slept pretty well last night in my car. It's still not very organized. I need to find my phone charger that plugs into an ac outlet and stuffs but yeah. I brought an umbrella too. I haven't used it yet. Maybe I should get on that and stay dry.. Yeah, I think I'll do that. Brb. Maybe... like later later but yeah. Hugs! David

Blah Blah Blah... Wait, whats going on?

I leave later today on my big huge free hugs road trip, after my mom and sister get back from Kansas City. As I think about all of the thoughts and plans and expectations that I have had over the past two years or so and all of the research that I have done to try and make this happen, its really hard to believe that my departure date has finally come. I have a vague notion of what I want this trip to achieve and what I want to come out from the experience but the truth is, I have no idea what I am going to get away from it. What is going to happen after I run out of the money that I have in 2 months? Will my products sell so that I can survive? What if something crazy bad happens? How trusting should I be of others? There are plenty of good people out there in the world but there are also one's that want to hurt you. I usually trust people until they give me a reason not to.. what If that comes to bite me in the future? Where am I going to park when I am in New York City? (yeah, any help is appreciated on that one.) But as I set off today I try to think about the endless possibilities that could come out of this trip, the different people that I could meet, the friends that I get to visit all over the country, the support of my followers and maybe the creation of an inspirational documentary. This trip is more than just to give away free hugs and brighten others lives, its a trip for me to try and help me find who I am, what I am meant to do in this world, how I fit into the greater picture of the world. It's kinda like going to college, except there is no teacher, your the teacher and the student, teaching yourself through experiences in the real world. I don't know what this trip is going to give me or where exactly I will end up but I do know that it is going to be a transformative year for me and maybe for you, my followers. Thank you for your support and together we will see what this trip has in store for us. See you on the flip side. Hugs, David

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