It all started at church when I moved up to the junior high school youth group when I was about 13. This is when I first volunteered in a soup kitchen. We would go on a Monday evening once a month and prepare a meal, usually salad, bread and shepherd’s pie. After the preparation was done, we would put out the food and start serving the people there.

The soup kitchen showed me the world from a new perspective. Before that, I had never really gotten to see what people less fortunate than I am had to go through. I could not have even begun imagining the struggle the people there had gone through or what they were still battling. After that experience, I have tried to be more understanding of what others might be going through that I cannot see.

I continued to serve at the soup kitchen and I continued to learn by listen- ing to what the people who ate there had to say. I learned how many people there are who struggle with homelessness, and how they are people of all ages, sometimes there were even small children there. I began to think about how lucky I am to have the privilege that I do.

When I was 14, I chose to participate in my church’s Down East Maine Mis- sion trip. Every summer, people from my church drive up to Maine for a week. In Maine, we made repairs to people’s homes and trailers who can’t afford to do it themselves. We shingled roofs, replaced skirting, scraped and repainted houses, added sliding doors or ramps. This year will be my fourth year going on the trip. Every year is a different experience. And every year I was so glad we could help.

Most recently I helped collect clothes to donate in Boston. We met with people struggling with chronic homelessness and listened to their stories. We walked through Boston with a couple who used to be homeless, slept over in a cathedral, and served food to homeless men and women.

My guides in Boston were a couple who told us their story of how they finally got an apartment and gained custody of one of their kids. They took us past the homeless shelter that they used to sleep in. When we got there we were invited inside. This was an unheard of experience. No one ever went into the shelter unless they worked there or were sleeping there. We weren’t in there long, but it was enough time to experience a little of the shelter. When we walked upstairs, there was a horrible smell and people laying on the floor with only the things they had. There were no beds, no blankets or pillows, just people laying on the floor. Until that moment, I had never been able to picture what it was actually like to be in a homeless shelter. I will always remember being in that shelter.

I have learned how homelessness can happen to absolutely anyone, no matter how well the person starts out. One day you could wake up in a house with plenty of food, and the next you could be sleeping on the streets with nothing. The men and women there became my teachers.

These experiences and these people have shaped the way I try to act today. In learning about what other people are going through, I feel I can better help others however I am able. I am so lucky that I have the privilege that I do. All the people that I have met have given me the knowledge I need to help others, and to better understand myself.

© Fiona. All rights reserved. If you are interested in quoting this story, contact the national team and we can put you in touch with the author’s teacher.