Wise Words from a Homeless Man

A couple months ago I was standing at the bus stop with several other people, some of them college students. There was also a homeless man sitting on the ground to my right. I just finished grocery shopping and had the bag resting my feet. My ear buds were in, so I couldn’t hear much of what the man was saying. I took them out assuming he was asking me a question, but he wasn’t. The man was giving us advice and warning us about not focusing on our academics. He told us when he was in school, all he did was party and run around with his friends instead of taking school seriously. He said if we didn’t focus and do our best, we could end up like him and we didn’t want that type of life.
I’m not sure if the other students were paying attention or taking his advice seriously, but I was. That man made a great point.

Sometimes we take our situations for granted without realizing how quickly it can turn for the worse. I was humbled by his words. There was something special in his speech. He wasn’t scolding us, he didn’t have to say anything to us. He felt compelled to share his story so we wouldn’t make the same mistakes. Little things like this mean so much. Hen you’re in school there is obviously a goal in mind, but so many distractions in the way. So much stress in the way. He was not implying that the road was easy, but that we should try. Don’t get discouraged and quit. Don’t get distracted and get off track like the man said.

*Individual photos by Jose Murillo and  Vladislav Klapin on Unsplash.com, edited by me