I have volunteered at several different homeless shelters in areas such as New York City, Washington D.C., and Toronto, Canada.  The whole American population, if not the whole world sees these areas of North America as having the largest homeless population.  This estimate is far from wrong.  I could not walk down the street in any of these areas without seeing a man sitting on the sidewalk holding a cardboard sign.  I could not walk around a corner without seeing a woman holding her child and a collection can.  I could not walk a full block without seeing a food bank or homeless shelter. 

These experiences have impacted my life like nothing else could.  Working with people less fortunate than myself has given me a whole new view of the world outside of my little town of Hillsville, Virginia.  I now realize that not everybody is as fortunate as myself and that not everybody has control over their own lives.

Before working at shelters I thought that homeless people were just dirty and lazy.  I believed that it was their own fault that they are homeless.  If I had come across a homeless person before working at any of these shelters I would have gone out of my way to ignore them and not even acknowledge their existence.  Once I got the chance to sit down and talk to people in these situations, I found that I was completely wrong.  Many of the young people at the shelters were dependant on their parents, and when their parents passed away they lost their house and all hopes of being able to pay for an education.  Many of the older people got divorced and could not support themselves with a single income.  Not all of the people have sad stories though.  Many of them will admit that they are living off the government and love it.  Some people just don't want to better themselves.

I had the opportunity to talk to one homeless man in New York City and this man changed my life forever.  He had nothing to his name but two sets of clothes and one winter coat.  His winter coat said "Boxing Champion" across the back of it.  After talking with this man for a while I learned that in his younger days he was a professional boxer.  He worked both with UFC and MMA.  He lived off the money he made by winning matches.  But his health began to decline and he lost all income because he could no longer fight.  The only thing he had to remember his previous life was his winter coat.  Hearing this mans story changed the way I look at the world. 

A person can have a successful life, be on television, and have the whole world know their name.  But with one unfortunate event their whole world can change.  Like the man from New York City, his health caused him to lose everything.  Any of us could end up in a homeless shelter.  With todays economy we are all constantly at risk for losing our jobs and insurance.  I now know that many of the homeless people in the world began their life just like we are living ours now.  They never imagined that they would be depending fully on the government and people like us to keep them alive.  At any moment we could end up like these people, so all of us need to realize that not every homeless person fits the stereotype that they are just dirty and lazy.  Many, if not most, are good people who work hard just like we do, but don't get the opportunities that we do. 

There was another man from New York City that had a story that really touched my heart.  He had not lived a hard life and no big tragedy put him where he is today.  But what he told me about his family brought tears to my eyes.  This man had a wife and three children.  His children were still young.  He said he didn't even know their ages, but he guessed that they were all under eighteen.  He told me that several years ago he lost his job due to outsourcing.  When he could not find a new job and his unemployment was beginning to run out his wife left him and took their children with her.  He has not seen his wife or his children since the day they left.  He started tearing up as he was telling me his story and I knew that he was not holding a grudge against his wife.  All he wanted to do was see his children again.  With all the bad things that he was going through at the time, the only thing he could do was think about his children.  It takes a strong person to focus more on love for another than on caring for themselves.  I can only hope that one day I will have a heart like he does.  In some ways I already do.  Every opportunity I get, I use my time to help people like him.  I do this out of pure love for others. 

I never knew that homelessness was a problem in my community.  I guess that in my mind only big cities had homeless people.  After all of my volunteer work with shelters I came home to see that it affects small towns too.  I began to see people on our streets that you could just tell that they had really nowhere to go and maybe had no one to love them.  I just recently learned that Galax, a city just a few miles from where I live, has a homeless shelter.  I was very surprised to find that some people that I know were living there.  Every place needs people that are willing to help the less fortunate, not just big cities with large populations.  I donate food, toys, and clothing every chance I get at school, church, or anywhere else.  These items go to people locally.  Now that I know we have homeless and hungry people in this community I am even more driven to be of some help. 

After all of my experiences working in shelters and learning about the people in my community that I used to overlook, I will continue to put forth my time, effort, and donations to help with the homeless and the hungry.  Homeless people need our love.  They don't need us to walk by and laugh at them as we throw pennies.  We need to understand their situation and do our all to help them.  My heart has completely changed since volunteering at these places, and it was the best change of my life.