Can hitchhiking be an expression of hope?

Reflecting on the belief in the kindness and goodwill of strangers.

About a year ago, I was in Vietnam, in the back of a truck driven by a “stranger” that saw me on the side of the road and decided to stop to give me a ride to my next destination. In my hands, a sign made with a recycled piece of cardboard and some words in the local language that I had just learned so I could communicate to people where I needed to go.

When I first heard the word “hitchhiking” I had to look up what it meant, because this was not a common concept where I grew up. And I remember thinking, “This sounds crazy and exciting at the same time”. It wasn’t until a few years later that I actually decided to give it a try.

My hitchhiking adventure in Southeast Asia started by chance. A friend and I had just crossed the border between Cambodia and Vietnam and because the Covid pandemic was still very recent, things were not yet back to normal, which meant that the bus we planned to take to the southern capital was not available. We asked around and the only option we were given was to take a taxi that would cost us far more than our backpacker budget allowed. While we pondered other possible options, the thought came to me: “There are lots of cars going in the direction we want to go, why not ask them for a lift?” I shared this thought with my friend, and here it’s worth mentioning how much his enthusiasm and support for the idea were important in the experiences that followed (Hamza, if you’re reading this, big thank you!). We put our thumbs up and it was no more than five minutes before someone stopped for us. There began a nurturing journey of gratitude and hope that grew every time someone stopped to give me a lift.

During the course of two months, I rode for more than 1.600 km, in two different countries, sometimes with friends, but most of the time, by myself. What I lived while counting on people’s goodwill is hard to put into words. People that got out of their way to make sure I’d reach my destination, people that paid for my meals, water, transportation, and even people that gave me some money for expenses. These were all strangers that decided to help someone out.

These acts of kindness happened again and again. I got picked up by 40 different cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles and even the police! And every time someone picked me up it was a reminder that there was reason to stay hopeful. I remember starting my days having a destination as a goal but having really no idea where the road would take me. Most of the days, it was a simple mission and it would take me just a few minutes of wait before someone picked me up. On other days, however, it would take hours. Especially on those days, I had to keep saying to myself “Someone will stop. Someone always stops. Stay hopeful.” and I’d keep smiling with my sign above my head. Someone always stopped!

I lived lots of incredible experiences and it would be impossible to describe all of them here, but some were especially remarkable and remain quite alive in my memory. Like the time when a couple of grandparents and their grandchild decided to drive more than two hours out of their way just to drop us off at our destination. Or the time when a DHL truck driver honked his horn and approached several other truck drivers in the middle of the chaotic traffic jam of Ho Chi Minh City just to help me get the next lift. Or even the time when a motorcyclist hired two other motorbikes to take us to a bus station, paid for our tickets to the next town and even gave us some money “for drinks later”. Yes, if it hadn’t happened to me, I’d also find it hard to believe!

A year later, I am designing a learning experience around the theme of hope and when I reflect back on this story, I start connecting the dots. I learned a lot from that experience, and the rides became the highlight of my entire trip. Not only because it was a cool adventure where I got to live things I’d never have if I was traveling the conventional way, but also because it was a powerful exercise of hope cultivation and connection with other humans. Among the many learnings that have stayed with me, some of them are particularly worth mentioning when reflecting on hitchhiking as an expression of hope:

• In essence, people are good and willing to do acts of goodwill for others. Even if they’re strangers. By being swamped with bad news every day, we tend to forget this, but if we keep an open heart and pay attention, there’s always an opportunity to see kindness blossoming around us.
• I’m very aware that the world out there can be quite dangerous, but fear shouldn’t keep us from connecting with people that we don’t know but who are willing to help for no apparent reason. Sometimes human beings are just as incredible as that.
• Remaining hopeful is an exercise, one that we need to do on a daily basis. And it can take just one moment for us to go from hopelessness to hopefulness. That happened to me on all the days I had to wait a long time. When someone finally stopped to pick me up I’d get instantly recharged with joy, gratitude and motivation to keep going.
• Asking for help is a powerful vulnerability exercise that provides us with the possibility of connecting on a deeper level with the person extending a hand. And through these deeper connections, we naturally nurture our sense of hope.
• Being helped motivates us to help other people. One day we can be in a position of offering help and the next in the position of someone who needs the help. Understanding this natural flow of things is key if we want to maintain our ability to exercise empathy and contribute to a cycle of positive actions. And that’s essentially where my hope for positive change lies.

In January, I will be hosting a peer-led learning experience (also known as “Huddle”) called “Hope: the group project” and among many things, I want this to be a space where we can share more stories that give us hope. I believe in the magical power of real-life tales that can show us why humanity is still worth believing in. I’m looking for 11 other hopeful humans interested in co-creating a Huddle where we can collect stories of hope from different people, cultures and settings and then share them with the world. And together, we might just start a ripple effect of hopefulness on a global scale!