Being a child should mean living life with no worries or conflict.
It’s a time to find your creativity and imagination for the colorless world. I can remember my childhood being filled with memories of playing outside and making silly mistakes. I told myself that I wanted to grow up and deal with the excitement of being an adult with no rules. But that was the biggest regret I ever said. Childhood is the greatest gift one can receive. Yet, I wasn’t aware that even children don’t have a good childhood until many years ago. Every kid deserves a happy beginning to life, no matter the environment they’re in. But after spending time with the children in the organization I volunteer, my wishful eye didn’t last.
In HomeFront, an organization that helps children in poverty and aids them with their education, I was able to get a perspective of what the kids’ lifestyles were like. Playing outside with them and tutoring them with their homework was a distraction from their true outside lives. Some kids would tell me stories of what goes on in their homes and how they didn’t know about some children’s shows like “Dora The Explorer” and “SpongeBob SquarePants.” It was a pure shock when I realized that some of the youth aren’t entirely exposed to youth; instead, they’re exposed to the dark aspect of adulthood. It hurt knowing that there are gaps in some of their childhoods. But that didn’t hold me back from introducing them to new activities. I loved watching them go to the playground and talk to their friends about whatever drama they knew about. Especially hearing about what they love to eat and share.
There’s a subtle optimism behind this struggle they go through.
Life is unpredictable, creating a will for most humans to continue through their hardships. The idea of knowing what life can introduce you to, good or bad, is exciting but can also cause paranoia. That is completely normal. Even though the event for these kids is heartbreaking, I don’t want to leave them in a place of darkness. My heart won’t stop me from feeling remorse, but I knew I could make myself take initiative. I tried to put myself in their position by noticing what habits they’d enact and how they found ways to cope when they were sad. I had to let them know that everything will get better and that where their minds are at now won’t stay with them forever.
I can willfully admit that I’m very privileged in this society of greed.
It’s disappointing how I forget every now and then how gifted I am and take it for granted. I’ve observed how I’m treated differently with my advantage in education, style, and social life. But, as I observe my benefits in this world, I tend to impulsively forget the disadvantages people receive for their lowness of income, level of education, or lifestyle. Spending time with these children continuously opened my eyes to the apathy people can have toward people like them. General society doesn’t like to give an opportunity to those in need of dear help, a rise from their current rough situation. It takes an enormous amount of attention to create a new step into the lives of the underprivileged; it shouldn’t be challenging to grab the attention of people in power to help. Although I can’t end this worldwide issue of poverty and inequity, my only hope and step I can take for these people are to show them that life won’t continue progressively without change in their strive for optimism for their future.
It’s hard to find beauty in a situation like theirs. Especially for kids because all they want to see is color and beauty in their adolescent life. The beauty that lies underneath the surface is their strength in adapting to such harsh conditions of adulthood.