A Need To Make a Difference

Hey Everybody. I hope you're all doing well. I don't know if you've read previous blogs of mine, but aside from updating people on my life, my other thing I blog about is simply just things that I am thinking about or have thought about for awhile. Hopefully I will have less typos this time. I have had this laptop for a year, but am still not used to the keyboard. Anyway, here we go.
      A few weeks back, I went on a vacation to San Diego with Danielle & her grandparents (with a sister & cousin there too). We stayed at the Beach Cottages in Pacific Beach. Although I lived in San Diego my whole life, I was never a beach person, so it's definitely an annual vacation that I really look forward to. We had a really nice time, but while I was there, the thing that bothered me most was two homeless people. The first one I saw was right outside the beach cottages in the parking lot. When some of us were walking to my car, I saw a homeless gentleman who was digging in the trashcans. Normally I think nothing of it. Maybe he was digging for aluminum cans to get money for. But this day was different. He pulled out a to-go box with leftover food in it. When he found it, there was such a look of excitement on his face. It was absolutely heart-breaking. I am by no means wealthy, but I can't imagine ever being in a position where a meal in a to-go box in a trash can excites me.
       The second homeless person I saw was while I was on the boardwalk. He was definitely an interesting looking person. You could tell he was homeless and probably not all there mentally. Whether he was born that way or if his mental state was a result of drugs is something I'll never know. But what made him different was that he was selling stuff. From where I was sitting, I assumed it was painted rocks. I've been on that boardwalk before and encountered people who were selling rocks with paintings of sea life, or beach scenes on them, so I figured it was nothing too new. Well...as it turns out, he was selling bread. Random, right? That's what I thought. But the way I found out he was selling bread was what made it so sad. We were sitting on the boardwalk wall and these girls who were well-off enough to be vacationing in Pacific Beach walked by and said to each other "Oh my God, he's selling bread. Can you believe that? That's disgusting! Who would buy bread from him?" That upset me inside so much. I mean, he might be intimidating or scary because he is dirty, and homeless looking, but he's trying. I cannot imagine how hard it is to be homeless and to actually try to sell bread. Who knows how he made this bread. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have eaten it just to be safe, but I wish I had cash on me to by some of his bread in front of those girls just so they could see that effort pays off and he's just trying to make his life a little better.
     Right now I'm in no position financially to help out any homeless people. Paying rent in a house while only making $40 a week at my Farmers Market job is pretty much wiping out all of my income. But I am very determined to help out people's lives that I know I can make better. Maybe financially I can't give away much, even when I'm older, but I'm definitely going to make sure I do what I can. If I'm in a touring Broadway show, as I intend to have a career doing, I would gladly give a ticket to somebody who doesn't look like they can afford it. Who knows, maybe it's been 25 years since they've seen a show. Maybe they did theatre in high school when their life was more together. They may not remember my face or know anything, but they won't forget the guy who let them see a show just to be nice. Even if they end up selling the ticket in front of the venue, it will make their life a little better and they won't forget it.
       All I know is that I want to make a difference in people's lives. I do all I can to help out my friends. I almost never turn down favors for friends if I'm actually available to do it. I know that at some point, all the favors and nice things I do for people will come back to me in a good way. Even it's just the good feeling I get from helping out somebody and making their life a little better for a little while.
     So if you take anything away from reading my blog, take a way this message: If you're fortunate enough to be reading this on a computer, you're well off enough to help somebody else or at least do something to make somebody else smile. So do it. Make somebody smile today.
-HBK