A native of England shared a message of hope and kindness with an audience at Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg. Leon Logothetis is the host of the National Geographic International show, "Amazing Adventures of a Nobody."
Logothetis has also written the book “The Kindness Diaries,” which he promoted during his stop at CSC's student center.
Logothetis talked about how the movie “The Motorcycle Diaries” led to a life change. He switched from a career as a broker in London to a person traveling across the United States on five dollars a day. He said that made him depend on the kindness of strangers to achieve his goal of going cross-country.
Logothetis also explained how Galesburg was a part of the journey. He recalled how a stranger took him in for a night, then went around the town the next day to collect donations for a train ticket to Denver. Because of that, Logothetis said he considers Galesburg a “second home.”
He said the experiences and interactions from his cross-country trip helped him change his outlook on humanity and society.
“It showed me that when you watch the news and you see all the negative things that go on, that’s not just what happens in a life. There’s a lot of good things that happen in life. There’s a lot of small moments that you can shift someone’s day, someone’s existence, someone’s way of seeing the world,” Logothetis said.
Logothetis said one of the interactions that stood out was his encounter with a homeless man in Pittsburgh who watched over Logothetis for a night. Logothetis said he repaid the man the next day.
“He had everything on the inside, and that kind of inspired me. In the morning, I was fortunate enough to be able to put him up in a house and send him back to school. But truly, he changed my life. Because here was a man who was coming from his heart, yet had nothing. And that was a very powerful lesson for me to take into my life,” Logothetis.
Logothetis said the man eventually attended cooking school and achieved his dream of being a chef.
