An experience and a sentence I will never forget

Yesterday was the social work program's yearly trip to the Salvation Army.  During this week, there are no social work classes (something I will miss now that I'm out of the program) and everyone signs up for a different day to go to the Salvation Army and help set people up for Christmas Assistance.  

And every year, I learn something new or something someone says sticks with me.

This year, it was when someone I was interviewing me was telling me about her family.  After calculating incomes all day and seeing all the negative numbers that people have at the end of each month, my heart breaks.  It's so sobering to see how many people live with negative incomes and live day to day, hoping that they will have enough food to feed their families for that day.  

But in the midst of all of these sad stories, I had this one person in particular that said something to me.  They were telling me about their three children.  All of these children went on to colleges like UofR, RIT, and Brockport.  And these children became engineers, nurses, and followed other fantastic careers.  And this person looked at me and said "You see, being poor doesn't have to hold you back.  If you fight hard enough, you can succeed in anything."  

And all I could think about was wow. What a bunch of college kids who pay $35,000 a year to go to school, can learn from a field trip.  We talked about the poor in Cru last week and someone said "the poor touch our lives more than we can touch theirs." And how true that statement is!  

We are so lucky.  We can afford colleges that most can't, we have cars and money to buy food.  

But how often do we stop and think about those that don't?

I know that I can take for granted how much I have.  And how lucky I am.  I have parents that still get my car fixed for me and pay my insurance, an Aunt and Uncle who let me stay with them rent-free when I didn't have anywhere else to go.  I have a little sister that I can afford to take out and spend time with.  And I have jobs with great bosses.  And it still took me twenty and a half years to realize how lucky I am that I don't have to worry about where my next meal is going to come from or how I will get to work. 

So I pray that no matter what your situation is, that you realize how lucky you are that you have everything that you do.  Whether it's parents that love you so much you feel like you're being smothered, or whether it's a job or food.  You are so incredibly blessed. And I hope you can see that and remember those that have almost nothing.