When I first heard free hugs I thought that the presentation was going to be about something close to reaches challenge, or someone talking about stranger danger. But I was wrong, it was kind of the opposite of stranger danger.

The morning of monday Oct. 30, Ken E. Nwadike Jr. told the whole school about his life story. Ken Nwadike is an inspirational speaker, a video journalist and a peace activist popularly known as the free hugs guy. Ken started out his presentation by taking a selfie with the whole school in the background. After that he went into his first experience with the police, in this story he explained how as a kid he was walking home and saw a few men in black uniforms in front of house, he didn’t know what they wanted so he ran into his house to find one of the men in the black uniforms arresting his dad. Later his mom explained to him that his dad was going to go away for a long time and that they were going to  move. In high school he didn’t have any friends and didn’t fit in with any friend groups, mainly because he was homeless. At lunch he would eat in his favorite teacher’s rooms with his favorite teachers. He always looked down at school when he was in the hallways. Until one day the track coach noticed that he was looking down, so he asked him why. Nwadike said it’s easier to look down because then no one could make fun of him. After that the coach invited him to try out for the track team.Nwadike ran his first mile in around six minutes. After improving he was able to get a full scholarship to college.

Nwadike became the free hugs guy when he attended the 2014 Boston Marathon to spread love and encourage runners with free hugs. After videos of him giving free hugs went viral on social media, he  started going to protests to keep the peace and made them less violent by giving out free hugs. It worked.

In the end I liked the presentation and I hope HP continues to have interesting people come visit.