I was the weird neighbour apparently.

Early twenties me bought a house whilst I was still at uni. Mostly I had lodgers but one Christmas I didn't. So it was just me for all of December and January. January it snows pretty badly ( for the UK) I hadn't seen snow like that for years. I get excited. I'm a big kid at heart. So I decide to build a snowman. It's fairly late at night and I've been drinking. I didn't have outdoor lighting for the back garden so I thought I'd build my snowman in my small front garden.

I built a glorious snowman. But then I decided he was a bit dull. Over the next few hours I dressed him in a variety of outfits. Including a Viking beard, helmet, and club, a burlesque outfit, complete with snow bust, corset, top hat, and whip, a pirate hat, beard, eye patch and cutlass and as a vampire with bloods dripping from his fake fangs. I finally got bored with this about 1am and went to bed.

2 weeks later the previous snow has melted away but it's snowing again. As I return from work the woman across the street races over to ask me if I'll be entertaining them again tonight. I look blank. Apparently her and her family had some friends over that night and had sat in the dark watching me and my snowman costume party. She wanted to know if I was planning a repeat performance so she could get her friends over.

I wasn’t spoiled with money, but I didn’t realize how good my family was or at least didn’t realize that other families weren’t generous until my freshmen year of college. My car wouldn’t start and it was dinner time and then I had to do a 2 hr tutoring job. I called my dad and he agreed the car needed a battery. I told him I could walk to work and get a ride home and the n to the shop the following am to buy a new one.
When I got back to my dorm my dad and grandpa were there installing a new battery. They had to drive over an hr to do that each way after 7 pm. I was grateful of course but I wasn’t surprised because my family always did things like that. The other kids in the dorm just couldn’t believe it. Then I saw how great my life really was and how my parents had truly sacrificed for us as had my grandparents too.

Oh I’ve told this story before many, many years ago.

For my 16th birthday my parents gifted me a red convertible but I legit threw a fit over it because the car was red and not blue. They kept the car for themselves and got me a new one. Just a small amount of context to show how spoiled I was.

Years later I needed volunteer hours for various college applications, etc etc. There was an 8-week summer camp that was perfect. 8 weeks as a counselor where I didn’t really have to do anything? Sign me up.

This summer camp was hosted by Americorps. It served the under privileged in my area for free if the family couldn’t afford it or for something $25 a week if they could.

There was this kid. Lovely little thing but they refused to take off their shoes. Going to the pool for the day? They’d keep their shoes on. They were adamant about never taking off their shoes, almost combatant about it. We knew something was wrong then. When there was a quiet/nap time, I took the kid to the office of the person running the camp and just sat down to talk to them. We talked about a lot of stuff and then I was able to get them to open up about why they never took their shoes off.

Their shoes were 3 sizes too small. They took off their shoes and their socks were covered in old blood plus new blood. Their poor feet were wrecked from wearing these shoes for god knows how long. I grabbed a first aid kit then cleaned up his wounds the best I could and wrapped them in bandages. I threw his socks and shoes away.

On my lunch hour I sat in my car crying for what felt like hours. I got ittogether, went to a shoe store and bought them 3 pairs of shoes in 3 different sizes. One pair that fit them now and the other 2 as their feet grew.

It was such a harrowing, humbling moment. A huge wake up call. That camp taught me A LOT and I came away with a lot of stories much like that from many of the kids that attended the camp.

I spent 2 years as an Americorps, then joined their VISTA program for another year. I started volunteering to work with at risk kids. I became a ‘big sister’. I did everything I could to give back to my community.

It’s over 20 years later. I still volunteer and help whenever/however I can.

When I look back on myself from that time I can’t believe how entitled and spoiled I acted/was. It was a life changing experience. One that I will **always** be thankful for.