Outside Enrichment
Reflection:
For my Outside Enrichment, I participated in “Friday Foods” which is a weekly event that the Georgetown Homeless Outreach Programs and Education (HOPE) organizes every Friday. My roommate introduced me to the program which works to make a direct, positive impact on the DC community by providing homeless people with food. On Friday, I met in HoyaCourt at 4:15 to make and pack sandwiches and brown bag meals. Then we took a bus to DuPont to distribute them to the homeless people. Coming into the service event, I did not know any of the members, however, through our shared effort to help the homelessness in our community, I was able to build many positive relationships. It was interesting to witness students from a diversity of backgrounds come out to help with the event.
Not only was I able to interact with the Georgetown members of Hope but also the homeless community. Every person that came to get a meal made the time to thank each of us and ask us how we were doing. One woman, in particular, asked what I was studying in college. When I told her I was studying Classics, her face lit up and she shared her experience with Ancient Latin. She recalled her years taking Latin in college, and we were able to bond over the difficult yet rewarding aspects of learning the ancient language. Even these short encounters had a significant impact on my day, and we were all touched by their positive reactions. We noticed immediately their appreciation of our service and how it gave them hope. Also, through helping others, we were able to feel gratitude. My outside enrichment experience reminded me how grateful I am to my family for allowing me to attend Georgetown, my friends and professors for making my college experience so rewarding, and for the chances I have to interact and help the people in my community.
Homelessness is an issue that affects everyone and the service event helped me reconsider my life from a fresh perspective. I realized that certain stressful situations I have struggled with including maintaining good grades or disagreements with my peers are minute problems compared to what many of the homeless people have to experience every day. So many times I have witnessed people ignoring the homeless on the streets or keeping their head down as they quickly walk past a homeless person. I am guilty of doing the same thing in the past because of many misperceptions that our society has established towards homeless people. However, they are people, just like me. By putting myself in their shoes and considering their situation, I would want someone to help me if I was in trouble and needed a hand. Since my first participation in “Friday Foods,” I have attended the event again multiple times, and each time I return, I feel more optimistic and inspired to be a more active member of my community. Ultimately, participating in Friday Foods has been a rewarding experience to not only get off campus but engage with the DC community.
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