Real Stories

One warm afternoon in Washington D.C., a group of my peers and I made sandwiches to go with the water and other various snacks we had to hand out to the homeless living in Dupont Circle. This was our last night of the service trip, and we were all tired from the weeks activities. Even so, myself and three others carried a cooler four blocks from where we were staying to the circle. We received looks of confusion and annoyance as we stumbled our way through the crowded sidewalk. That's the thing about helping others- sometimes you look completely ridiculous while doing it. But the feeling of accomplishment after you are complete is like no other. This feeling is what pushed us to continue walking, and finally we reached our destination. We took handfuls of food and split up into small groups, covering every area people might need us. Usually, when someone is offered food they smile and say thank you. Occasionally, you meet someone who is having a bad day, and might come off as rude. Its best to ignore people like this, as they are not bad people, just people in bad situations. But this night, I met a man like no other. This man I will remember for the rest of my life.

At first glance he didn't look special. He was tall, with dark worn skin that you could tell had been though a lot. When he smiled at us I didn't even notice the gaps where his teeth were missing at first, because his smile was so warm and inviting. We offered him a sandwich, water, and a granola bar. He gratefully accepted our offer. He asked us where we were from and who we were, like many often do and we responded with central Massachusetts, followed by our names. He corrected us after we said our names, saying "no, ya'll are godsends" He explained this as gifts from god, sent to help others. I was glad to see how happy we made him. He then asked if he could tell us his favorite prayer, and we accepted his offer. He started off by opening his arms wide and looking up to the sky, then yelled "yes lord yes lord yes lord yes lord yes lord" very fast. He then recited the prayed word for word. I didn't grow up in religious household, so this didn't effect me that much. We thanked him, and expected to move on, but he continued to talk with us. He talked about life and love, and told us his story. We wrote down some of the things he said to us, some of the quotes are "your enemies are first your friends" and "learn to love those who love you". We lost track of time talking to him, fully absorbed in his voice. Then our chaperone came over, worried because we had spent so much time with this man. He politely moved us on to the next group of people, and we soon finished handing out food.

The things this man said will remain with me for the rest of my life, and the feeling I got while talking to him is unexplainable. I hope after reading this you are driven to find this feeling, and experience it for yourself. If you have any stories about helping other please share them in the comments, I would love to read them.