I have an addiction...

It's true, you read the title right. I have an addiction. An addiction to hugs. From the moment that I was born, I preferred sleeping on my parents' chest than eating. I wasn't a noisy baby nor did I cry much. I slept and hugged them. That's all I seemed to need from them to feel peaceful. My mom would often recount the effort she had to put in feeding me. Food didn't seem as high of a priority on my list as sleeping or being held by my parents.
As I look at how I am now, I must say, these habits still remain true (minus needing diapers thankfully). I eat when I feel hungry or when I realize I haven't bothered eating much that day. When it comes to hugs though, I'm a glutton. It's my desert. What's amusing is that the other hug-lovers in the class (pretty much all girls - woot woot) come to me. Apparently the years of 'practice' have paid off. Everyday, it seems like there's a lineup of ladies waiting for their turn to get a hug. I do get teased about the attention I get, but any teasing's worth that warm, innocent, comforting, peaceful feeling of holding someone you care about. Despite getting a lot of hugs daily, every single one feels like a new wonderful experience to me.
This stirred up some thoughts and discussions among my colleagues (yes this is what your future doctors talk about). Apparently hugs cause your brain to release endorphins which makes you feel good (basically acts as a reward mechanism). So I started thinking - can you overdose on a hug? Can you become so used to a hug, like an addict, that your usual dose no longer feels as good?
The other thing about hugs is, some people just suck at giving hugs. I assume they didn't practice like I did when they were young, so now they're not olympians of hugging. A bad hug is one in which they stand about half an arm lenght's away,and instead of coming closer, they lean forward, as if there's a fence between us, and then pat ya on the back. Honestly what is that!? There's no fence or bubble of space in hugging! When I meet a good hugger, I let them know of how amazing of a hugger they are, which often takes them by surprise, because I suppose not too many people point out their appreciation of hugs. So now I jokingly refer huggers to other good huggers, thereby creating a network of awesome huggers.
So how important are hugs? well they seem important enough that people are investing valuable time and technology to create clothes that hug you! Basically, if you are away from a good hugger, well then you can both buy this special shirt - the hug shirt - and when activated, you'll receive the same feeling and warmth of a hug from them! check it out: http://www.cutecircuit.com/projects/wearables/thehugshirt/

Well that's all for now folks. *hugs*.