Connections

How much time do we spend in pursuing our virtual identity? How much time do we spend in selecting which picture to use as a profile picture - how to write our status to make it as more attractive as possible to the majority of people? How clever we think we are in using smiles and emoticons to blur the edges of what we would really like to say? I'm afraid sometimes we just hide from truth. Today I had an amazing experience, something that never happened before to me. I decided to join a friend in  a free-hugging event. Yesterday we prepared our papers and today we were ready to join all the Focallocal guys in Trafalgar Square. That's not much a big deal, apparently: you just have to show up there with a paper saying "Free Hugs" and walk among people, move towards them and just...hug. But the actual deal is much more than just that. To me it has meant quite a lot. I don't know if it was because of the gorgeous location - Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery are two of my favorite spots ever all over the World I've seen so far - but suddenly emotions got the upper hand on rationality and I got immediately involved in that thing. I didn't realize what a thing I was about to do until the very first person, a girl, came towards me to get a free hug. I immediately felt tears streaming to my eyes and I had to swallow them back because I didn't want to get too emotional. To hug a person is a very simple thing to do - and yet is one of the most moving, happy things anybody could ever do. No need to hide behind any fake smile in a chat. You're living the moment, one hundred per cent. No way you can get distracted by something else in that very moment - no way you have the time to think how you should put it to get more appreciated by people. You are just...You. And people thank you for that. An elderly woman told me these exact words I'll never forget: "You're doing a great thing today. You're making people smiling". Another man told me: "Thank you. You're connecting the World". The World's not going so bad, though. Most of us may reckon we're getting more and more individualistic and selfish, sharing less and less with people in live interactions. And I might agree with that, but yet when you try to go out of the schemes there's still someone who follows and support you, and that's a good thing. It means people, of course, still feel the need of brotherhood and openness. Once you understand you can be different from what you usually think you are, things can change for better. Apparently effortless actions can get people to think a bit more deeply about connections. And if you believe in connections, you'll start seeing how many of them are just around you. No matter if you're too young or too old - it's never neither too early nor too late. Let Life surprise you. 

Free Hugs with Focallocal, Trafalgar Square.