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John Freyer '95, the author of All My Life for Sale, a documentary-travelogue that details the process of selling all of his personal belongings on eBay and traveling around the country to meet their new owners, spoke to an audience of nearly 50 students in the Kirner-Johnson Auditorium. Freyer, a government concentrator while at Hamilton, was accompanied to The Hill by his father Jack Freyer '57, who also majored in government. Freyer's talk was sponsored by the government department and the writing program.

Freyer came up with the idea to sell everything he owned to ease a move out of Iowa City and a return to New York City, unencumbered by belongings, to a job he had previously held at Sesame Street Interactive. Freyer's first move was to post signs around Iowa City advertising an inventory party where guests would tag and catalogue everything he would sell.

"I didn't want to sell anything," he said. "[The party] made it easier for me to get rid of things... By the end of the inventory party… people were tagging everything, including each other."

When asked by a student how dedicated Freyer was to selling the entirety of his earthly possessions, Freyer said he kept those belongings that would allow him to travel around the country and meet his former possessions' new owners.

"By the end of the sale I had a car, a used laptop computer which I bought from the proceeds, a pair of pants that zippered into shorts – I thought they might be useful on the road… I wasn't walking around Iowa City naked."

Freyer, who now holds an M.A. from the University of Iowa and is working on his M.F.A. there, gave detailed accounts from his time on The Hill throughout his talk and lauded liberal arts education.

"When you have a liberal arts degree you can do anything. You're prepared to go just about anywhere. [All My Life for Sale] was informed by my research when I was an undergraduate in government," said Freyer. He said his thesis auctioned for more than $20, which he believes is the highest price ever paid for an undergraduate thesis.

Freyer's project had many twists and turns, not the least of which is his deciding not to move after all.

"I got engaged and it looks like I'll be in Iowa City for a good long while," said Freyer. Though he may not have escaped the Midwest, Freyer met with unqualified success entertaining and informing students throughout his talk Thursday night.

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