Today’s post will not be on my experiences in Dubai. Well, it kind of will. Homelessness has peaked my interest many times, but it never really went anywhere. It was peaked again a few days ago. Maybe it was because of the thoughts of moving out of the comfortable shelter that is my parent’s house without having a proper job, or maybe it was the two men that asked me for shelter, as they did not have any place to stay; I am very vulnerable to these situations. If it was solely up to me, and if it were not utterly ridiculous, I would take in any stray thing, be it an animal or a person. So this is me blabbering on about my views on homelessness. I started a project last fall, entitled Chicago Cares. It is a project about the homeless in Chicago. I was inspired to do this because of the amount of homeless people in the city. Everywhere you go and turn, there are a homeless people asking for money or food or any other kind of help you can give. My idea was to photograph them, in the rawest, purest form. Not pitying them, and not judging them. Simply show what their lives are like. Despite the fact that they are homeless, they still love, laugh, and have fun, along side all the negative things in their lives. This is what I wished to show in my photo essay. However, the project came to a halt when I came to find that around 60% of the “homeless” were not actually homeless, but people pretending to be, because as it turns out, it is a rather well paid occupation. This made me think twice about what I was doing, and at the moment I still have not decided whether it will be something I pursue. What I wanted to share with you today though, was Derek’s story. Derek was a homeless man on Michigan Avenue, or better known as the Golden Mile. This seemed to be the most densely populated with the homeless. It felt like it was the Wall Street of the homeless. Derek caught my eye, and stood out from the other homeless on the street. It was a rather cold October morning, and while every single homeless person I came across had all hope drained out of them, Derek had a spark in his eyes. Even before I pulled out a $5 bill, he smiled at me, and instead of asking for money, he wished me a lovely day and blessed me. I decided to stop by Derek, and we started talking. He told me about his three children, who didn’t know that he was on the streets begging, as he had been rather recently fired without notice. He told me about his diabetes and how he was going blind. He also told me about a thousand dollars he had received from a basketball player a few days back. There was such a mix of emotions in his stories. He never asked for pity, he simply asked to be heard, and when someone listened, his eyes lit with pure joy. I wanted to share this story because of the two men that approached me the other day. I wanted to share this with all the people who judged them simply because of their appearance, or the stereotypes they had in their minds. Bad luck can strike any one of us, any day. And there is nothing wrong with asking for help when it does. by Magda Jenten
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