Theres More than Meets the Eye by Vanessa

Theres More than Meets the Eye by Vanessa - May 2018 Scholarship Essay

My mom has always taught me to be humble. Ever since I was nine years old, I would volunteer at her job. My mother works at a homeless shelter in Oakland, CA. I would always go and help in the kitchen because they would make lunch for the homeless seniors. There were so many different personalities that would be there. The majority of the people there had become homeless because of a drug or alcohol addiction. Like many homeless, they have a certain attitude that they actually use to help protect themselves. People may think that all homeless people were just angry people, but I learned otherwise. Since I was always there, they started to warm up to me. They learned my name and would start small talk with me. It amazed me to see all the different personalities come out. One day, a few of them called me over. I was used to getting life advice from them but this day was different. They began to tell me stories about their life when they were younger. One lady was a dancer, who performed in many places. Another man loved to travel when he was younger but lost everything because of his alcohol addiction. Sometimes you think that the people on the streets were always like that. But if you think about it, they had a life before this happened to them. Listening to all of their stories made me think about what more they could have done in their life if they had not fallen into their addiction. The older I got, the more I heard different stories, the more I began to think about choices I was making, as well as choices my friends were making. Having this experience of volunteering at a homeless shelter made me really think about how all your actions now can affect you in your future. All of your hard work and dedication, life experiences and plans, could be gone for what seemed like a good time.