Today, we live in a society where if you don’t have the newest “Gucci this” or “Abercrombie that” you are considered poor. I can say that I have never bought the newest “Gucci this” or “Abercrombie that” and I know that I am not in any way poor. I know this because of a lesson that my dad tried to teach me. It turned into a four year love for helping others.

When I was in fifth grade, my dad thought that I was not fully appreciating all that I had been given. So he signed me up for the homeless shelter that was run once a month through my church. So I was forced to wake up at 4:30 on a Saturday to go feed what I thought were a bunch of out-of-work people who didn’t care about anything. When I got there, I was so skeptic. I figured I would make some eggs and be done.

It was nothing like that. Yes, I did make breakfast for these people, but it was more than that. The family that normally worked the morning shift was so nice and showed me home to do everything. When they all woke up, we fed them and then cleaned everything up for the next day. These people were not mean and helpless. They all had jobs, but needed a place to stay. They weren’t rude and mean they were actually sweet.

What I love about working there is the people we help appreciate the little things we do for them. They said “thank you” and smiled when you do the simplest things like refilling their cup of coffee or cleaning up their cup. It is just helping people in the simplest of ways that makes their days. When you have so little, you really do appreciate the little luxuries in life.