After the tour, I knew that I wanted to write about this experience because of how impactful it was for me. First and foremost, I was shocked to see some of the units that we had visited, especially when we toured the Sara Frances Hometel. The room we saw was small, but it fit all of the essentials. It was strange for our class to be entering the hometel in such a large group because it felt quite invasive to enter someone else's home in such a way. To be honest, I was surprised to know that such units exist in the United States—I'm used to seeing small spaces like these in Manila where my family is from, so it was surprising to see a place like this in the U.S. because I'm more used to seeing single family homes in the suburbs here.
There were two people who inspired me on this tour for different reasons. The first person was a woman whose room we toured at Potiker. She seemed to enjoy our collective presence, and she fondly shared with us her love for life. She was a flight attendant in the past and had many opportunities to travel across the world, but she also proudly proclaimed her love for her home country of America. After finding out that we were UCSD students, she boldly and happily declared that some us would meet her again because she signed up to donate her body to science at UCSD after she passes (it was so strange to hear someone talk about themselves after death so cheerfully, but this woman was very happy to share this information with us). Unfortunately, I can't remember her name, but her optimism and bright personality were such a standout. She made me realize that there is so much joy in life, even in your older age as you get closer to death. I'm really glad we got to meet her.
The second person who inspired me was Bruce. I loved seeing his place, and the view was beautiful. I loved all of the little details in his apartment, and my favorite part was his hat that proudly stated "End Homelessness" that was located at the front of the door. His speech at the end of our tour was extremely empowering because of how much passion he has for the work he does. During his speech, I stood right in front of him and I watched the tears fly out of his eyes as he began to get emotional. I was saddened when he talked about how his peers in his generation may not care as much, but I felt inspired when he told us that he sees so much more potential in our generation to find solutions to end homelessness. Towards the end, he looked me right in the eye, and it felt like he was speaking to my soul when he talked about why he chooses to be an advocate and why he believes it is important for us to continue this work of ending homelessness.
Before this weekend, I started to feel very powerless and burned out in the social justice work that I do, and I felt like I was losing my "why" or my sense of purpose. After listening to Bruce, I felt empowered to take action to find solutions to help those who are unhoused and challenge the system that perpetuates poverty and homelessness.
At the end of the day, my main takeaways from this tour are that there is still joy and hope left in the world, and I think that helps bring me back to my sense of purpose in life.