Topic: Norms
Source: On the morning of Saturday, September 3rd, my friend Abbey Teitelbaum and I talked to several homeless people in the Arcata Plaza. Their names are Hippie, Patrick, Desta, and True Blood.
Relation: This is a relationship between the differences of homeless people living in Arcata and the norms of my life as a college student.
Description: My friend Abbey and I decided to go into town around noon a couple Saturdays ago to look at shops just roam around town. When we were walking through the plaza we noticed a rather large group of homeless people sitting on the grass, looking like they were having a good time. Most of them were either laughing, talking, or playing with their dogs. Abbey and I then decided to go up and talk to some of them. Neither of us were very nervous because there was a lot of people around and they looked like generally nice people. I don't think I would have went up and talked to them on my own because there was so many of them and I would probably get too nervous even though I know most of them are nice people.
We approached the first couple person we talked to. We asked if we could sit by them and they said yes and told us their names are Patrick and Hippie. We started talking and we asked them various questions such as, "How did you become homeless? Where do you sleep? How do you get money and how often? How did you get here and why Arcata?" They were happy to answer all of these questions and seemed excited to be talking to us. After talking to Hippie and Patrick for awhile their friends True Blood and Desta came by. We asked them similar questions and they basically told us their life stories. Looking back, I think our conversations with them were one of the most interesting conversations I have ever had and I am glad we stopped to talk to them.
Analysis: When talking to the homeless people I met, I realized how different life is compared to mine. Sure, there are some obvious differences such as the lack of access to a bed, lots of food, and a lot of personal items. Yet, I never really thought about how they usually don't have much contact with their family and most of them are constantly traveling. These things are normal to them though and from what I've seen, most of them are perfectly happy with it. Coming to college and being away from my family and my friends back home was a big change for me and I'm not sure I would be as happy as they seemed to be if I wasn't able to stay in contact with people back home.
One of the most interesting things I found when talking to them was the recurring theme of family and karma in our conversations. All of the homeless people I talked to that day brought up these two things on their own, without Abbey or I even asking them about it, which shows how important family and karma is to them. All of them had similar views about how their "family" is the people around them: their friends and just people who are nice to them. I found this to be somewhat similar to my current situation. Many of us new college students come here without friends and have a hard time adjusting to the change. Therefore, what I have found, is that students come together into groups and they make their own little "family" to ease the acclimation process of living away from home.
Karma was also brought up by all of the homeless people we talked to. I believe in karma but it seemed to me that they were constantly thinking about it, as though they really hoped to be rewarded in some way if they were good people in life. I'm used to never expecting an award from a good deed, but they seem to really like the idea of karma.
When Abbey and I said our goodbyes True Blood, the most talkative of the bunch, told us that he would always be here and that we could always come to him if we needed help or a place to stay. This was astonishing to me, not only because we just met him, but that he would offer anything he had to give us just because he is a nice person.
Overall, I'm glad I learned a lot about the people I met that day. I found a few similarities in the norms we share. Also, people to live with if college ever fails me.
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