An Unexpected Lesson

Loud music, dancing, and cheering silenced the outside world. My family and I were having the time of our lives celebrating my aunt’s engagement and the start of her new life with her new fiance. We partied for hours and by the end of the night, I was exhausted. However, my cousins and I had been asked to help clean up as the party came to an end. A little while later, my family and I were all beyond tired and started making our way to our hotel with boxes of decorations and bags of food in hand. I was lost in my own world laughing and making jokes with the rest of my cousins. Just then, I turned the corner and saw two homeless men lying on the sidewalk with a few shopping bags containing only what I can imagine to be all of their belongings.

Their old clothes were covered in dirt and both wore a face filled with exhaustion. A few other people walked right past the men. I introduced myself as well as my cousins and asked the men if they would like some of the food we had packed from the party. They gladly accepted my offer and I handed them the leftover food wishing them a good night as we left to head back to our hotel. The whole interaction did not last more than two minutes.

On my way, I started to think about what had just happened. Even though this was not the first time I had interacted with homeless people, the fact that I was coming from a party where everyone was letting loose without a worry in the world made me realize that this was a privilege not everyone could afford. They were so appreciative for something that was such a minuscule act for me, but for them, it was about survival. This made me question how long they had gone without eating a proper meal.

I’ve been raised to help those who need it, but seeing the way those men were neglected by the rest of society made me think about how people could be so ignorant towards the homeless. The homeless are still people, they need help, they deserve to be treated as equals, and not as someone who is beneath the rest of society. Most people aren’t willing to help the homeless based on the assumption that they are mostly all drug addicts, alcoholics, or mentally ill.

Seeing how different my life is from those men made me so thankful for how hard my parents worked to support my sister and I. I never thought of all the things I had taken for granted; I never had to worry about where my next meal was coming from, I never had to worry about having a warm, safe place to go, I never had to worry about not having clothes, and I never had to worry about being alone while facing the world. I learned so much in those two minutes and those two minutes have changed me into a better person.

Since that summer I have made it a habit to regularly volunteer and donate anything I can and have even had my family participate. I never expected such a short interaction that happened over a year ago to affect me as much as it did, but I’m glad it did because it helped me discover my love for volunteering and talking to new people with different backgrounds and experiences as me. I often think about those two men I met after my aunt’s party and how they are doing. Though they most likely don’t remember me, I find it kind of funny that a regular day for them was something I’d never forget.