For the past two days, I constantly talked about the chance to meet Ryan Gosling, the famous Noah Calhoun in the romantic movie, The Notebook. I told everybody Gosling was scheduled to attend an event close to my apartment in Washington, D.C., never mentioning the name or issue concerning the event.
The “Gosling day” arrived, and I fixed my hair and make-up, knowing I might catch a glimpse of him. I entered the conference room and a swarm of other college-aged girls announced Gosling’s presence. I got in the end of the line to talk to the Academy-Award nominated actor. Lines from The Notebook and his serious face in his latest movie, Fracture, were the only things running through my head.
When I shook his hand, he looked me straight in the eye-a sign of confidence. I stumbled over my name, but remembered to mention I was from the great university of North Carolina State. He smiled. I thanked him for coming to the conference and his interest in the issue, and proceeded to ask for a picture and autograph. It was probably his 400th that day. He acted like it was his first. He even joked with me and asked to pretend he said something funny in attempts to make a candid photo.
Because of my press pass, I was able to grab a seat in the second row, behind Benjamin McKenzie, who played Ryan on the television show, the O.C. I was still shaking from my encounter with Gosling.
The event’s mediator introduced Gosling as the “man the majority of us attended the event to see.” Gosling put his face in his hands at the mention of this, and graciously thanked her. He spoke clearly and defiantly. He stated he did not feel like an expert on the conference’s topic, which was the displacement of hundreds of women and children in Uganda, due to the heinous Lord’s Resistance Army terrorizing the country.
“I’m just a guy that you think I am,” Gosling said. “I am just an actor.”
He discussed his trip to Uganda.
“I am sitting in the desert, when it hits me, this was what [the children] were going to do with their lives,” Gosling said. He said he was “crippled” by the way the children helplessly meandered in order to stay busy.
At this moment, what Gosling said hit me. The conference was about these children, these people being treated so inhumanely. This was not about meeting Gosling or getting the closest seat I could to McKenzie. It was about all of us helping our fellow mankind. Everything seemed so trivial at this point. I felt obnoxious and spoiled for getting impatient in the line waiting to meet Gosling moments before, while these children suffered.
“It means a great deal to them to be acknowledged and know people are thinking of them as human beings,” Gosling said.
The next speaker was Laren Poole, one of the creators of the movie, Invisible Children, which is shown on campus every semester. He seemed to be our age and received no important introduction like Gosling.
Poole humbly accepted the floor to speak.
“It’s not that hard to get something done,” Poole implored.
Poole discussed his stays in Uganda, where he slept, ate and lived with the children affected by the vicious army.
I remember seeing the movie Poole, along with some of his friends, made during what was supposed to be an adventure through the African continent. They encountered an ambush from the LRA and their lives were never the same.
After the conference ended, I walked up to Poole and thanked him for his movie and efforts. I asked what students at N.C. State could do to help these innocent children and let him know that his movie is shown on campus to filled auditoriums. He thanked me, but in essence, I should be thanking him.
I should have asked him for his autograph, because he is truly my hero. I should have been bragging about the chance to meet Poole. He is what others should strive to be, instead of dying our hair or wearing big sunglasses to show our idolization of Hollywood.
I felt paralyzed at the thought of Poole and his friends dedicating their lives to helping these people in a country they accidentally traveled to. I cannot begin to fathom the compassion and unselfishness Poole must possess. I was starstruck.