I woke up yesterday with a big smile on my face and apparently it was one which I couldn’t erase off because two complete strangers approached me as I walked in the CVS and the gym and literally both said, I don’t know what it is about you, but you look like you are up to something big today…and my response to the him and her was “ You have no idea!”
2 hours later I found myself on the corner of Hollywood and Highland boulevard with our Hug Squad. I admit the thought of putting ourselves out there was a little nerve racking because I didn’t know how LA would react to this little love act, would they reject or love us for it?
Next thing you know there are 4 of us out there achieving a purpose, which we realize was far greater than ourselves. Everything just seemed right, stars aligned when coincidedly there was an Austrian Television host who happened to be doing a documentary about the magic of Free Hugs and here we happened to be doing just that!
In terms of response from LA'ians, the people who we expected would hug us didn't and those that looked closed off from their body communication, were the ones running to us with open arms. Also from those who were "Germaphobic" as they said, we managed to convert more than we expected. We touched people at the heart level so much so that we had complete strangers become Free Huggers themselves, people literally dumped their bags, picked the extra posters we had and took over the Hollywood/highland block with us...it was truly a beautiful synergy between strangers! At the end of the four hours, we each hugged about 150 people and cant image how electrified our group was by the experience. 24 hours later and we are still feeling the power of this movement..
Our mission was " to make people smile and feel good on this day " And I think that on behalf of the group I can confidently say "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED TEAM!"
Yours Truly,
Jasmine Gokbilgin
