My Humbling Experience

For my topic in this class, I have been focusing on homelessness in the city of St. Louis.  For Assignment 3.1, I chose to create a photo essay that showcased homeless as a large problem for our city.  It was important to me that people should see the problem, and not just read about it.  However, in order to create these images, I had do to something that was completely out of my element.  I found a homeless man that I showcased in my essay.  His name was Rob.  Rob opened my eyes to a lot of things that I had never thought about before.  Everyone knows that homelessness is a problem.  It's hard to pass a homeless person without feeling some pity, but until you know what they go through day to day, they're just strangers that you pass on the street; beggars without a name.  Rob begs for 12 to 13 hours a day to try to get enough money to rent a hotel room for a night so that he doesn't have to sleep in the cold.  In that 13 hours, he makes around $40.  I think this is just atrocious. When he doesn't get money, he stays in abandoned houses.  I went to a house that he stays in, and it's in terrible shape.  The walls are falling apart, there's glass everywhere, and its still cold.  The only thing that it offers is protection from the wind and rain.  He sleeps in a closet, which he claims is the warmest spot in the house.  All of this is going on all around this city, and all around this country.  This experience was so humbling for me.  It was hard to go back to my warm apartment knowing that Rob might not get a warm place to sleep that night.  He might not get food that day, and he has to constantly worried about so many things.  It just made me realize how much I take for granted my life.  I have a family, and friends that will support me if I need it.  I am getting an education that will allow me to succeed later in life.  I have so many things in my life that are handed to me, and Rob has beg for a warm place to sleep.  I'd just like everyone who reads this to think about how they take things for granted, and make an effort to think about those in the community that are less fortunate.  I know that none of us have the power to give a homeless person shelter for any amount of time, but the next time you see one, maybe give them what you have in your pocket.  It could be more help than you could imagine.