MW Homelessness

First Blog Post: How it Feels to be Homeless - second to last draft

1-12-16

1:00 pm

It’s scary, being homeless. I’d never felt so afraid or so alone in my life. I was used to being the center of attention, having been a successful neurosurgeon until I got into a plane crash and damaged both of my hands beyond repair. Now, I was hardly noticed, stranger’s eyes glazing over me as if I was as insignificant and typical as a street rat, scavenging for scraps. Which I was, if you judged by the way people looked at me when they did acknowledge my presence. All I could feel from them was judgement, their stares making my face burn with shame until I was sure I was nothing more than a scorch mark on the pavement.

I was lost. I didn’t know what to do or where to go. I had no one to turn to except my parents, and even they turned away from me when I wasted all of their money on alcohol after discovering that it could numb the pain. My hands and my practice had been my whole life and with the loss of them, I spiralled into a bottomless depression.

When the weather started to grow colder, I started to lose myself. I had basically accepted the fact that this was my life - feeling cold, lonely and unwanted. Sleeping in alleyways and on park benches. Still, there was the tiniest part of me that clung onto a little shred of hope in a hopeless situation. Hope that things would get better, that I would get better, that this wasn’t going to be my life forever.

That’s how I ended up here, feeling warm for the first time in a long time, surrounded by dusty books and heavy silence. The only noise that I can hear is the clacking of keys and the soft rustle of pages being turned. I can finally get some privacy, since everyone is too wrapped up in their own storybook worlds to notice one skinny girl in ratty clothes with trembling hands.

Maggie W.

Second Blog Post: How to Make the Situation Better - second to last draft

1-12-16

1:56 pm

I stayed at a shelter once, but it was torn down because they didn’t have enough money and the government wanted to build a new mall. After that, I tried to get a job but after sending out resumé after resumé and receiving no reply, I got the message. No one wants to hire a has-been surgeon with hands that can barely lift a coffee cup without spilling a little coffee over the edge.

Something else that really bothered me, still bothers me, is the stigma. Itʼs something that we all struggle with, a big, black stain painted over us making people think that we are less than we are and that we dug ourselves into this hole, and thatʼs not the reality. Not all homeless people are homeless because of their own shortcomings.

I guess the point that Iʼm trying to get across here is that I would like the government to provide more funding for homeless shelters so they can stay open and take care of those who need their help. I am also asking that the government provide more job opportunities for us so that we can make money and begin to improve our lives. It doesnʼt have to be anything glamourous. I would accept a job working at the homeless shelters themselves.

One last thing. I would like to begin erasing the stigma surrounding homeless people. I know it wonʼt happen overnight, but if it could be made known that itʼs not our fault that weʼre in this situation, weʼre not all drug addicts or hopeless drunks and weʼre trying to make our lives better.

Maggie W.