By Van Edgewater

I am living in a man’s homeless shelter to get this education, so that I can better myself for the future. This situation has exemplified to me what kind of life I would have if I do not get a better education, and it starts with finishing my high school accreditation.

I truly believe now that an education, the right education, is the answer to all things possible; a better and possible brighter future; a means to an end in all things to live a conducive and consequential life. I need this education to be that person, the person that I was meant to be: a humanitarian who helps point people in the right direction without judgment, so that they themselves can be better contributors to their own lives and society as well.

As for me, I have been living on borrowed time, borrowed money, job to job to job. I have grown weary of it, and unlike the people I spend my evenings and weekends with, I have not given up, nor am I just living to die.

A conviction as to where I am coming from is to walk in my shoes for the day. I doubt that any of you would have the stomach to do it for six hours. I see people putting on their job resumes or college applications that they volunteer at the homeless shelters. Well, I guess that it all fine and dandy if you are trying to appease someone and look good at the same time,

If you could imaging for a moment that you are re-wallpapering your newly acquired home and that you started with the baby’s room, and all of a sudden you puncture the wall with your scraper, and out comes what seems to be hundreds of roaches. That is what I live with day in and day out, the underlying truth.

And I want to be a Social Worker.

After living with these forks since March, 2015, I have come to question my own matriculation. I have come to the conclusion that I abhor these people, and that they deserve what is coming to them. I have been pondering this thought for quite some time; I have talked to a trusted sister and a confidante friend of mine — the mendacity to myself would be to walk away from this. To stand at this crossroads at this age at this time, I have learned that life has not been easy, so why should the future be any easier. This is what I was meant to be.