The following is a reflection on homelessness by St. Mary's Academy junior Bailey Wilcox. It was written following a school-sponsored weekend homeless immersion attended by twelve students and four staff members. St. Mary’s regularly supports volunteer opportunities to encourage its students to develop their social responsibility.
I recently attended a homeless immersion with my school in which I spent 24 hours delving into the lifestyle and issues surrounding homelessness. This immersion was beneficial to me because, through it, I gained compassion for those who are in need, and understanding for the challenges that they face. The immersion allowed me to see, to some degree, the perspective of homeless people, and to recognize their need for help, and their desire for advancement. I also found faith that their situation will improve.
Before embarking on the immersion, I knew that I would see people who are in poverty, but I did not understand what poverty looked like. It was not until my experiences speaking with homeless people that I developed a modicum of understanding of the difficulty one faces in how to determine who is struggling and who is not, based solely on appearance. One homeless man that I spoke to looked as though he was middle class. The man told me that, after an accident, he lost his job, and then his house. One theme, often repeated within the homeless community, seems to be that the average person may lose his job, go through a divorce, or have an accident and, within months, be on the street.
One part of my experience was serving breakfast, and then eating lunch with homeless people at the Blanchet House. One thing that I noticed, when eating at the Blanchet House, was that people did not converse much during their meal. I believe this to be a result of shame, as well as a lack of traditionally admired activities in their lives. Our society defines us through our jobs, houses, and special activities. The societal stratification between people with jobs and houses, and those without, is immense. People without these necessities aren’t able to talk about how their day at work went, and are essentially limited in their abilities to converse during a meal the way that a traditional family may.
After the immersion, I feel blessed for the many things in my life that I take for granted. Aside from the basic necessities such as food, soap, and bathroom usage, is the ability to make choices. People who eat at the soup kitchens must eat at specific times, and must eat what those kitchens offer. People must arrive at shelters early to spend the night, and often must leave around 6:30 in the morning. The basic ability to make choices is a blessing in itself, which many homeless people do not have.
The homeless immersion has given me new perspective on the basic components of my life. School, sports, a stable family, and safe environment are all blessings that I am at fault of overlooking. I am now conscious of the homeless people in my community, and I think about how various things in our community are affecting them. The immersion has given me a sense of unity with the homeless community. When I pass a homeless person on the street, I now look them in they eye, smile, and say, “Hi.” I understand the importance of acknowledging the homeless, and loving them as I would anyone else. I am grateful to the homeless immersion for imparting a newfound understanding and compassion for people in need, and I know that I will carry on the teachings I learned in this experience.
