One Person at A Time by Tyann

One Person at A Time by Tyann - May 2019 Scholarship Essay

Hello. My name is Tyann. I live in a small community called Aleif. The city in general is like a middle class “hood” what some people call it. However, my neighborhood is on the inside looking out where most of the crime happens. With a 10,000 grant, what I would is start off in my home first before anything else. The house we live in now was built in 1972. So it’s pretty old we been trying to fix up for years but since as time passed it gets older and older so fixing it up will basically cost as much as moving into another house. My mom loves the neighborhood and the house we live because she feels like there's no other neighborhood like ours. So what I would do so we can stay is use some of the money to paint the front of our house and redo our kitchen. Also fix up our backyard and put a patio because it looks likes a jungle back there. That way, we would be more comfortable throwing parties and inviting people over. I would fix up my brother's room and turn it into an office for my mom because she always wanted an office for her business and a place to study for her billing and coding classes.

I knew a lady that worked for Family Dollar store that was right up the street from me. I knew her since I was little and she was always smiling and making conversation with my mama telling her how beautiful my sister and I were and how big we were getting.Lately, I haven't been seeing her at the store but it wasn't a big deal because I assumed she retired because she was pretty old. A few months passed and my mom and I went to run a few errands on a Saturday. We stopped at the beauty supply. When we got out of the car I glanced at a lady who was limping and pushing a cart with a bunch belongings in it. Her mouth was out of place so I assumed she hardly had any teeth in her mouth. Her clothes look so dirty and worn out. I turned back to my mom. Turns out my mom was staring to but her eyes was in disbelief. She told me that was the old lady who used to work at Family Dollar. I was honestly so confused because it seem so extreme to once see her at a store and the next on a street corner homeless. Turns out that The manager of the store got rid of her. They apparently told her that she was getting too old to do the job and she needed to retire. They didn't realize that she developed dementia that’s why she was struggling on the job. It was kind of sad that they just let her on the street and not even trying to help her. What I would do with the $10,000 grant is give the lady some medical help and if I have enough for it, I would find a retirement home she could stay in. If not, them I would just make sure she has a place to sleep at until someone could help her.

I don't want to sit her say big things like most people would say like “build schools” or”feed the homeless", but if I make a change in one person’s life in my community it could be just as impactful.