Gap Year Blog #4

A couple of weeks ago, my friends and I were walking back home from an event. We had brought cookies with us, but we wound up having half the tray left. On our walk back, we had to go through a rougher part of town. That’s when I met John. John was sitting on the side of the road, holding a sign asking for food. He looked hungry, so we decided to give him some cookies! We offered them, he said yes, and we sat and talked to him. John is 26. He was born and raised in Washington, D.C. He graduated high school and had planned on going to college, but he had to stay home and work instead. He worked a few jobs up until recently, when he was fired. He was left with no money and no place to live, so now he is homeless living on Pennsylvania Ave, just a few blocks away from the President. We sat there for just probably twenty or so minutes and talked about everything from family to football to politics. Now I still see John every Tuesday night when I’m heading to my meeting. I always make sure to say hi to my friend, John.

This exchange really made me feel funny and stirred something in me. Really, if it weren’t for my friends, I probably wouldn’t have stopped, but they wanted to, so I went along with it. Usually I think of the homeless and feel bad, but usually I think about what they did wrong to get there. That so often isn’t the case, and this really opened my eyes to what is going on around me. I felt guilty for the way I’ve thought about the homeless community all these years. In the end, this experience came with mixed feelings, and I’m very happy I met John.