Free Hugs
2006-10-26 & 11:04 p.m.

so we watched this -

and we did this -

- all of myself, beatrice, renny, shiangnee, and for some part, taina and eva who caught on.

we made signs, and stood before the flow of human traffic to see if we'd get any response from cedarians. it was hard at first, cos everybody ignored us, even people we knew. but it was like the video. by and by, people came up to us, and hugged us randomly.

and it was nice. i never expected much out of it, but it was heartwarming to give and receive hugs like that. from screaming friends who ran from afar into our outstretched arms to the people whom we didn't know, who stared suspiciously before relenting and hugging us, to teachers who embraced us warmly.

who'd have guessed that an idea of renny's and beatrice's would spark off such a large response from the crowd. sure, there were those who walked past us without a second look, but it didn't matter because we knew that we had people who appreciated us as well.

so there we were, four of us sec fours knowing that this was the last day we'd be seeing the whole school together before november 20th rolled around and we'd leave cedar for good, spreading the love one last time. it would have been a good way to end the term, to leave on a high.

but if every fairytale must have a villain, ours came in the form of disgruntled prefects who misconstrued our good intentions, deeming it instead 'offensive and disruptive', and went to the higher powers to get us banned from our little campaign.

Now, correct me if i'm wrong, but in what way is offering up free hugs to anyone who is willing to give/receive one offensive or disruptive in the least bit ? Last i checked, participation was voluntary, couldn't one choose to ignore said campaign if one wasn't interested ?

maybe narrow minded bigots cannot see past the little boxes in which their stagnant minds reside, and realise the greater good in what we did. but it's pretty pathetic how people can be against something we did entirely in good spirit.

In my opinion, opressing us like that, not giving us a chance to voice our reasoning on why we were doing this, citing "you all need to study, it's more important", (it was reccess, even crazy muggers need their sustenance and who's to say ours doesn't come in the form of hugs and emotional support ?) was pretty damned shallow.

but i'd like to think we got our message across, we accomplished what we set out to do. knowing we have the support of many cedarians and teachers, even after we were banned, was heartwarming. i guess it shows that we're not all sheep, some of us are capable of thinking for ourselves(rationally and sensibly, too !) and for that i am grateful.

this is an excerpt from renny's blog, of a conversation she had with a friend (*name changed to protect her identity)

jane* says: cos' if i'm not wrong, my friend hugged one of you guys, and she felt better. actually, cos' her parents keep on quarelling and all.

honestly when we started out, i never thought it'd impact people this way. i assumed it'd just be an hour or two of hugging, laughter, and general good cheer. but this, this is something different, it's like we actually helped someone in our own little way.

it makes me wonder how many lives we could touch if we did it properly and on a larger scale. maybe renny's plan of doing it in town makes some sense after all. we'll see.

for now, it's enough for me to know that with part of our morning we gave out free hugs to everyone who wanted them, hopefully made a couple of people smile in the process, and left cedar knowing what we did will be remembered and talked about by quite a few, i believe for the right reasons. and that, in itself, makes me a happier person than anyone who tried to stop us will ever be.

for more on what we did, check out renny's entry and beatrice's entry on this. like renny, i appreciate all comments, good and bad. thanks, and love<3.

And I'll take you for who you are
If you take me for everything

[edit]this just in - we've got a petition up to clear the name of our free hug campaign. click here to support our cause, it's greatly appreciated.[/edit]

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