I was just off from an exhausting day, spent 5 hours doing my project with my group in one of their house. I usually walk home, but at the time all I wanted was my bed, inside my warm, cozy home. So, I decided to call home to get a ride. I went by the school to wait.
I waited, and waited. It was 6:35 P.M. It was dark and cold, and every minute made me miss my home even more. I looked at the time again - 6:50. I was starting to get irritated. I was cold, hungry and alone. At that moment, I felt helpless. I felt as if no one was coming for me, as if I was lost.
I could see many cars zooming past me, leaving me with the feeling that they were ignoring me, as if my existence does not even matter, but luckily, my ride did come. I was relieved. "Let's buy some pizza!" I said. It made me forget all the thoughts I was having. We went to Little Caesars. Right away, something caught my attention and it was not the pizza.
It was a couple of homeless people asking for some change in front of the fast food establishment. I saw a few people shaking their hands in rejection, but many just looked straight ahead and ignored them. My brother was one of them, passed them as if they weren't even there. Witnessing what just happened gave me a great deal of empathy towards them. Not only that I experienced the same situation they were in, just a few minutes ago, I also knew how they felt. They were cold, hungry, and lost.
Both of the homeless people finally gave up. I was heartbroken. They knew they wouldn't even get a response. Being ignored was worse than getting rejected. At least rejection gives you the sense of being rejected but being ignored, it just leaves you with an empty feeling, it is like you do not even exist.
As the homeless woman finally moved out of the way, a kid approached her and handed her a dollar and some change. Her eyes immediately widened, shocked with the kindness the kid had to offer. Moments later, a different person stepped in. The lady had four cans in her arms. She greeted the woman with kindness, offering the cans. The woman was stunned with all the sudden generosity. All she was able to do was give out endless amount of gratefulness to them with new hopes in her eyes.
Seeing all the humane acts, almost brought me to tears. It was relieving to know that there are still people out there with good hearts. After all of this, I decided to look for something that would help me on how to respond to homeless people that I might encounter in the future. They're are many reasons why we might ignore them, but we never stopped and consider how they would feel.
