Every
year, while sitting around the table for Thanksgiving dinner, my family goes
around and says what they are thankful for. Growing up, I always said things
like my family, my friends, and my dogs. Things that I should be thankful for
and very much am. But last year I said I was thankful for the friends I had
made who are experiencing homelessness. And I think that is even truer this
year – thanks to my time with Franciscan Outreach.
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| The current volunteer community enjoys a Thanksgiving meal together. |
I grew up in a predominantly white,
middle class suburb of Chicago, very much wrapped up in a comfortable blanket
of privilege that everyone I knew also had. It wasn’t until I went to College
(Loyola University Chicago,) that I began to realize the world I had experienced
was nothing like the world the majority of the population experienced. The
world outside my bubble was harsh, cruel, and unfair. After going on a service
trip that included direct service with people experiencing poverty in ways I
couldn’t have even imagined, the bubble I had been sitting comfortably in began
to crack. After that experience I began to lead a homeless outreach
organization on campus, and the relationships I formed with the people we met on
the streets are the ones that taught me what the world is actually like – and
they taught me how to love despite the harsh reality they live in. These were
the people I was thankful for last thanksgiving. The people who I cried with, I
laughed with, and prayed with for two and a half years.
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| Jaime with the Labre team at LUC. Labre is a student-led homeless outreach ministry that is active in many high schools and universities across the country. Students like Jaime form relationships with the homeless of downtown Chicago, providing both food and friendship. |
These experiences I had at Loyola
changed me in a way that I could not ignore, so I decided to do something
similar full time after graduation, which is how I came to find out about Franciscan
Outreach. As expected with any transition, I was nervous about what the next
year would be like. I was nervous about the work that I would be doing, and how
I was going to manage a dorm of 45 women, when the majority of them are old
enough to be my mother. I was nervous about community, specifically that I
wouldn’t fit in as the only American woman. But within a couple of weeks, all
these worries proved to be for nothing. While there are some intense moments at
the shelter, most of the time the dorm is filled with laughter and support, and
in three short months I have built relationships with the ladies that are more
meaningful than I could have imagined. For example, one time I was dealing with
a mentally ill woman who was very upset beyond my ability to deescalate. After
she left, six different women came up to me, telling me that they had my back
and would never let anything happen to me while in the dorm. While I never
expect to need their assistance in an extreme circumstance, that gesture of
support is something I will always remember, and be thankful for.
The other large part about being a
volunteer at Franciscan Outreach is community living. As I mentioned, it was
something I was nervous about and didn’t know what to expect. Little did I
know, we would bond quickly. There’s something about moving into an apartment with
11 strangers that teaches you patience and the importance of intentionality in
relationships, especially when your community doesn’t do their dishes. Between
always having someone to hang out with to having people around constantly who
understand the difficult things we may experience at work, I couldn’t imagine
this experience without community. I am thankful for their support, their
enthusiasm, and their ability and willingness to bring me up when I am feeling
down.
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| Leon, Jaime, and Tim sporting their favorite and most recent purchases. |
This year there is a lot to be thankful
for. I am thankful for the cubs winning the World Series, finally. I am thankful for my friends and family for
supporting me through this year. I am thankful for my alma mater, for breaking
my heart in ways I couldn’t ignore, and exposing me to injustices that I now
feel called to fight against. I am thankful for the journey that got me to this
point, and for the future I have ahead of me, committed to continuing to
advocate for those who society has and continues now, more than ever, to
marginalize. I am thankful for the guests, who have shown me how to love in a
way I didn’t know possible, who have shown me how to laugh through the most
difficult times, and have shown me how to have faith, no matter how much or how
little you have and what you are going through. I am thankful for my community,
for always being there, for lifting one another up, and for being such a strong
source of joy. I am thankful for Franciscan Outreach, for giving voices to
those who have been silenced, and walking with those who society had abandoned.
This thanksgiving season, I will be reflecting about all these things that I am
thankful for, and what they all have in common: the presence of community. As
my biggest source of inspiration, Dorothy Day, once said “We have all known the
long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love, and that
love comes with community.”
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| Jaime and FOV 15-16 alumni, Emily, celebrating the Cubs victory. |
