I Got That Christmas Feeling; A Night With The Homeless

Now I know you didn’t think I was going to let Christmas come and go without giving you all another blog post. Why haven’t I blogged in so long you ask? Well let me raise my hand in shame and admit I have let the hoopla surrounding Christmas consume me. If you’re not feeling the Christmas buzz yet you must be living under a rock. With only two days left until Christmas Day, the played out Christmas songs and movies are in full rotation as well as the frantic shopping being at an all time high. I think I’ve seen it all in the last couple of days; people fighting over the last parking space, parents running around trying to buy their children’s love and hopeless boyfriends walking around in circles with no idea what gift to buy. Yes “Christmas” is in full swing!  

For so long I’ve had a selfish mentality when it comes to Christmas. It’s always been about what I want, need or deserve. In my twenty three years I’ve finally realised I already have everything I need so this year I wanted to do something different. When my friend suggested last week that we go to the homeless shelter and volunteer I knew this was a perfect opportunity to give back. Now if she had suggested the same idea this time last year I would have given her a straight side eye. I can’t lie and say I wasn’t feeling apprehensive about going to help out because I was. 

My first thought when I think of the homeless is those people you walk past at the train station who have one hand out begging for change and a can of beer in the other hand. I soon realised how ignorant my perceptions of the homeless where when I arrived at the shelter. If I’m honest it was hard to tell who was homeless and who was a volunteer, everyone looked so normal. We was told by the team leader that we were required to help serve food as well as spend time speaking to the homeless. As me and my friends got talking to the people I was shocked by all the stories I heard. Gambling addiction, a man that had only left Nigeria two weeks ago in hopes of starting a business in England and a old man who said he had been homeless for over 10 years were some of the stories I heard, as to why they had ended up sleeping on the streets. 

Of all the stories I heard that night a young man named Ross story really touched me. He told me he had severed 5 years in the Army fighting on the frontline in Afghanistan. How on earth does a soldier who served our country fighting on the frontline end up sleeping on the streets? Well life has a funny way of changing your circumstances. He explained that after returning home from Afghanistan he found it very hard to be integrated back into society as he didn’t have any skills in his own words, “the only skill I’ve learned over the years is to kill, i’ve spent so much time protecting this country but when I came back there was no one to protect me” Ross had lost his housing and didn’t have any immediate family to turn to which had lead him to sleeping on the streets. He told me how he walks around London everyday with his backpack looking for different spots which offer shelter and food for the homeless. I hate walking to my local Tesco, i couldn't imagine walking around London in search of food. It was clear that Ross had experienced things in his life that I couldn’t even comprehend but he was still very thankful and hopeful. How do you even stay thankful and hopeful when you have been sleeping on the streets for almost a year?

There are so many misconceptions surrounding the homeless but the truth is we can all end up in the same position as the people I spent the night with at the shelter. Our circumstances could change at any given time but yet we take all the simple things we have for granted. I know it’s hard not to be sucked in by all the hype surrounding Christmas but if you are religious or not remember to give thanks for everything. I hear people saying how blessed they are all the time but I don’t think we realise how blessed we really are to have the simple things in life; our loved ones, a roof over our head or even a bed to rest our heads. I’m no Samaritan and I know my time at the homeless shelter didn’t change any of these people’s circumstances but it definitely gave me a big wake up call to how much I have to be thankful for especially during this time of year.

Our circumstances could change at any time so don’t  take all the little things for granted. I hope you all have a lovely time this Christmas and enjoy all of your end of  year festivities.

Merry Christmas 

Love AK

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