My Night Under the Stars
By Shannon Jennings
I sat there freezing, trying to remember why I had actually agreed to do this. It was 2am and so cold. People really live like this; they have no other options. I kept telling myself that it was a good cause and if nothing else I’d have an interesting story to tell later. A bunch of my friends and I in Student Christian Fellowship had decided to camp out to try and raise homelessness awareness. I was so cold and tired that I didn’t even like the idea of trying to lay down in the sleeping bag that I had gone through so much effort to borrow. I was convinced that if I even stopped moving or lay down I would only get colder and more miserable. So I kept moving around and being very stubborn despite the entreaties of my friends for me to try and go to sleep and that it really w
ould be warm in my sleeping bag.
Finally, around 3am, I crawled into my sleeping bag and had to admit that it was actually much warmer but I still couldn’t fall asleep for another hour despite how tired I was. People really live like this. What can I do to help? Your nice, warm bed is just a two-minute walk away. No, if I were actually homeless I wouldn’t have that option. I finally managed to fall asleep at about 4am and was up again at 6. We were going to a homeless shelter to serve breakfast. We got to Rescue Mission and we were all very tired but we were definitely glad to be there. We had all decided to camp out because this was an issue that mattered to us but we were also happy to be there because for the first time we all had an idea of what it was like to actually not have a place to live for a night.
When we got back to campus I slept for 5 hours. It felt great; especially because I got to do it with a roof over my head and in a bed with a nice warm blanket. I knew that I had more of an idea of what it was like to be homeless but I had only done it for one night and there are only so many problems you come across in one night. I mean, after my 5-hour nap, I got to take a shower and it was like it never happened. I got to stay in my warm room and put on clean clothes. My night under the stars definitely got me thinking about what I could do and why I think it needs to be done.
By Shannon Jennings
I sat there freezing, trying to remember why I had actually agreed to do this. It was 2am and so cold. People really live like this; they have no other options. I kept telling myself that it was a good cause and if nothing else I’d have an interesting story to tell later. A bunch of my friends and I in Student Christian Fellowship had decided to camp out to try and raise homelessness awareness. I was so cold and tired that I didn’t even like the idea of trying to lay down in the sleeping bag that I had gone through so much effort to borrow. I was convinced that if I even stopped moving or lay down I would only get colder and more miserable. So I kept moving around and being very stubborn despite the entreaties of my friends for me to try and go to sleep and that it really w
ould be warm in my sleeping bag.Finally, around 3am, I crawled into my sleeping bag and had to admit that it was actually much warmer but I still couldn’t fall asleep for another hour despite how tired I was. People really live like this. What can I do to help? Your nice, warm bed is just a two-minute walk away. No, if I were actually homeless I wouldn’t have that option. I finally managed to fall asleep at about 4am and was up again at 6. We were going to a homeless shelter to serve breakfast. We got to Rescue Mission and we were all very tired but we were definitely glad to be there. We had all decided to camp out because this was an issue that mattered to us but we were also happy to be there because for the first time we all had an idea of what it was like to actually not have a place to live for a night.
When we got back to campus I slept for 5 hours. It felt great; especially because I got to do it with a roof over my head and in a bed with a nice warm blanket. I knew that I had more of an idea of what it was like to be homeless but I had only done it for one night and there are only so many problems you come across in one night. I mean, after my 5-hour nap, I got to take a shower and it was like it never happened. I got to stay in my warm room and put on clean clothes. My night under the stars definitely got me thinking about what I could do and why I think it needs to be done.
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