the ladybug foundation

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,

nothing is going to get better. It's not."

I remember one of the first times I saw a homeless person. My family was in LA on a trip to Disneyland, and we were walking down a street in order to find a fun restaurant to eat at. When we were walking down a dark path toward the restaurant, I don't remember seeing anything wrong, but on the way back to the main street, I noticed there were at least three or four homeless people sitting in the shadows.

It scared me.

Now I think about that, and I think about the other times I've come across homeless people -- in Mexico, in London, in nearly every major city I've ever visited -- and I think about how horrible it is that the world has taught us to be afraid of homeless people. Hannah's story inspires me to do something about that, and to do something about those who are less fortunate than me. She's right -- homeless people are just people, and they just happen to be homeless. They're not going to hurt me; they just want someone to care about them. It's not fair to them that they've ended up being homeless for whatever reason, and now no one wants to help them because we've been taught not to. 

When my mom and I were in London in 2013, we walked past the same homeless person every time we went to the tube station in order to get anywhere in the city. One night, my mom was bringing pizza back to the hotel, and she stopped for that homeless person and gave her some of the pizza. I'm so sad that I wasn't there to witness it, because I know that slice of pizza probably made that woman's day. I want to do something like this -- I want to make a difference. 

I want to volunteer at soup kitchens and spend time just speaking to homeless people. I want to help them. I've always wanted to be someone who made a difference for other people, and I know that I don't have to do anything big. I just have to care, and so that's what I'm going to do.