homelessness

The neglected

When I was a less fortunate child, I had a recurring vision of how I would end as a grown woman: successful by means of hard work, happy and generous, living in a two-story house in a friendly uptown neighborhood, nurturing my children, and going out of my way to help others, whether I had much or not. I didn’t want my future children to grow up nearly as less fortunate as I did. Constantly moving from state to state, having to leave old friends and make new ones every so often, more nights than others walking to the nearest shelter for a nights rest and a small portion of food to hopefully fill me up for the next day, and growing up too early because of my mothers’ mistakes. Life’s struggle growing up took a huge toll on me but has definitely made me independent and understandable to society as a whole. I am now 21 years old, a little more fortunate than others because I chose to make a difference, but still unhappy about the networks of homeless individuals and families all over the globe.

To think that there are millions of people in this tight nit community of the less fortunate all around the world has me completely distraught: scrounging from point A to point B daily, scavenging for any ration of food or money they can obtain, sleeping in the freezing cold under the closest overpass, wrapped in dirty cardboard boxes with new holes seeped through every day, and a pile of soft dirt lying beneath their head substituting a comfortable pillow. Then they wake up the next morning and repeat this process verbatim. According to the national coalition for the homeless, there are approximately 3.5 million homeless people scattered across the globe. Every day, without noticing, we walk by or drive by at least one homeless person in need, begging for something we all take for granted, just some loose change that ends up thrown under old stacks of mail or piled inside a plastic bottle hidden behind disheveled Sunday newspapers. And still, we pass by them ignorant to their means of survival knowing that with just one good deed, we can give one person or a family, hope for a lifetime.

I’ve had the opportunity to commit myself to working three hands on jobs and attending school full time while playing basketball for De Anza. Not quite successful yet, but definitely generous and working my way up. This past weekend, just like any other, I stopped by the grocery store for my weekly necessities, and right before the entrance sat a young homeless man in what looked like he hadn’t changed his clothes in over a month, playing a musical instrument with his dog that appeared like he was dying of thirst, completely exhausted. I walked over and handed him my left over food from my dinner and with glowing eyes and a smile that could light up the world he praised me with a “Thank you so very much, I haven’t eaten in a couple of days. God has blessed you in every way possible.” He gave majority of the food to his dog. Still sympathetic towards this young man, I continued along into the grocery store and bought him a week worth of groceries: a loaf of wheat bread, peanut butter and jelly, fruit, baked chips, pudding, a big jug of water, and a pack of hot dogs for his companion. After I dropped off his bags of groceries to him, I noticed he had a bit more of life to him, like with one good deed I gave him hope for a lifetime. Again, he praised me with his eyes filled with tears, his bright smile stretched from ear to ear, and his body language that read joyful expressions. I couldn’t help but to feel happy for him. I had made a difference in a strangers life, which was enough to brighten up my own day.

More often than not, we are blind to a huge chunk of society, considering this portion is homeless. Majority of them are hidden behind fences that are wrapped around a construction site, under a nonfunctional bridge or an abandoned tunnel, usually away from society as a whole. We drive past them every day, walk by them on a daily basis, pass by locals asking for anything that we can do to help out the homeless shelters, and still we are blind to their means of survival. We are blind to the 5,000 young people who die every year because of assault, illness or suicide while on the streets. We are blind to the addiction of alcohol and drugs that homeless people may use to cope with their lives. All it takes is one good deed, one act of random kindness, and one person’s difference to make meaning of anyone’s life, homeless or not.

www.coalitionforthehomeless.org www.nationalhomeless.org www.dosomething.org