Love Each One - USA Ringling College of Art and Design Emily Carlton (NC), Ginger Waugh (FL), Stanley Moore (FL), Jason Heaton (OH) Loveeachone.blogspot.com Section I We feel that love is the answer to peace and hurt in our country, and by loving each individual we encounter, we can create a love revolution. Our goal was to show love to individuals, to encourage others to do the same, and to collect individual definitions of love. We didn’t have any additional funding or fundraising, although on multiple occasions people bought or made us meals or offered us discounts on rooms once they heard about what we were doing. We left Miami, Florida, in mid-May and spent seven weeks on the road driving across America and spreading love to everyone we met along the way. We performed random acts of kindness which we called “Actions of Love,” in which we did acts such as paying for someone’s dinner, leaving big tips for wait staff, helping a family spend a day at Disney, paying for car repair for an older woman, putting together care packages for soldiers overseas, and many other things. We volunteered at various shelters, retirement homes, and outreach centers. Some of our best volunteering experiences came from places where we literally showed up on their doorstep and asked how we could help right at that moment. We spent a lot of time just listening to the individuals we met and stayed with. Getting to know them and hearing their desires, dreams and thoughts on love was one of the most edifying experiences. We discovered that possibly the most important way to show love is by simply being there. Being ready to listen and invest your attention. Each individual is so beautiful and has hopes and dreams and goals, and desires for someone else to care about those things as well. We really loved the times when we could just sit with people and get to know them. We made so many wonderful friends around America. We will never forget them, and we even hope to visit many of them again someday. One unexpected difficulty that arose was soon after receiving the grant one of our members, Stanley, found out he had been accepted into Pixar’s internship program and would only be available to travel with us for the first half of the journey. We spent some time as a group discussing what we should do and ended up coming to an agreement to invite a friend, Jason, to join us as well, so that it wouldn’t only be the two of us girls traveling alone. It ended up being a great idea. We each brought very important strengths to the group. There were also a couple of times when we had a certain location written down on the calendar and then last minute changed it because we felt like we were supposed to be somewhere else. The adventure required a lot of flexibility. The most unexpected difficulty was that loving one another was a lot harder than we thought it would be. The four of us spent time 24/7 together in the car, in the homes/hotels/hostels we stayed in, while eating and volunteering, and everything in between. We got to see all sides of one another, and it really taught us that love is a choice that you have to continually be making. One must choose to see others as more important than themselves. It brought us all much closer together and strengthened our friendship. We didn’t have any budget constraints because we very carefully planned everything out, and we still had money in our budget to use for our show, book, DVD, and t-shirts. As we look back, we see that it is really incredible that we did this project. We feel like as we were planning it and then carrying it out, it just became “normal.” It did not sound or feel like a crazy, over-idealistic dream of an adventure. It was just something in our hearts. But the stories we have written on the blog and the video footage we recorded all prove that there was something bigger about this project than we even knew. Everywhere we went, people were excited about what we were doing. We got positive comments on the blog, excited emails, and Facebook messages. This aim to love individuals was igniting something in people’s hearts. It is like it struck a chord inside the human race. Love is what we are crying out for, and maybe we do not know it, but then
when we see it we are naturally drawn to it. We feel like as we continue to put together the book, the video, and the show, it will only reveal more and more how much of an impact this project has had in the lives of those we met, those who read about us, those who knew us already, and within ourselves. We feel like there will definitely be a future for this project, and we have already talked about more ideas. It just probably will not be this year because two of us are still in college working on thesis and the other two are working in full-time jobs in Louisiana. Section II Peace is a decision that you have to make within yourself. It can be achieved by seemingly insignificant actions that are often overlooked. It requires having an open heart and choosing to invest your time and/or money into another person. Maybe it is through a meal, or gas, or simply a listening ear. Giving yourself creates peace between you and the receiver. Our project will continue to contribute to peace because it encourages people to reach out beyond their comfort zones in their daily life and love the people around them. If we walk with open hearts and give love through simple acts we can change the world one person at a time. Our hope is that Love Each One will have a ripple effect and that acts we did or encouraged will continue to reach people that we did not come into contact with. “This project has made me rethink what I spend my time thinking about. So much of my day is about myself. The project reminds me every day to change that. When your focus is off of yourself, and on others, you will be the happiest. This trip let me experience that, and I want to live that way for the rest of my life.” - Stanley Moore “Going into the project, I believed in the idea that everyone has a basic need to be loved. But it’s not something I had really taken a lot of time to put into practice. This project allowed me to see first hand and experience how true it is. From drug addicts to little old ladies getting their oil changed, EVERYONE needs to be loved. And it’s amazing how little it takes to invest and pour into another person's life. We live in such a love-starved world, and just the tiniest bit of love - something as small as paying for a cup of coffee or offering to listen to a woman's troubles as she works the late night shift at Walgreens to support her family - can have exponential effects. For me, it’s changed how I think, how I act. I've learned patience, compassion, empathy, and sacrifice. It’s changed the way I look at people. It’s changed the way I react to people. It’s changed the way I've chosen to act towards people. I'm nowhere near perfect when it comes to loving others, but I sure am trying.” - Jason Heaton “Participating in this project helped me to really notice individuals and to see their hearts, hopes, and dreams. I learned that love means listening and giving your undivided attention and choosing to support someone even when you do not understand them. Love is beauty in action. It was through daily laying down my needs for someone else’s during this adventure that taught me first-hand how we are meant to live always.” - Ginger Waugh “All our experiences while traveling really strengthened my view and understanding of love. Before we had begun I thought to myself, ‘Oh, I know what love is! It's other people that need to know more about unconditional love.’ I believe each of us thought that in some way. But by day three of our project we all realized this adventure was much bigger than we had ever imagined. We set out thinking we were going to go out and teach the world about love, when really our experiences with each other and the people we met taught us the true meaning of unconditional love. Since our travels I see individuals differently. It's easy to slip back into one's selfish mindset, but Love Each One continues to challenge me to break out of my comfort zone for the sake of loving another individual. I see people as being even more important than they were to me before the trip. I see hearts and thoughts and dreams as such beautiful, unique qualities in people. I understand the importance of lending a listening ear, investing time into an individual, and waking up every morning choosing to act in love.” - Emily Carlton