After
a money-robbing night out dancing to 60's-90's classics with my
friends and smoking enough cigarettes to induce a chest infection I
made my way back to Nottingham train station.
'Big
issue??' I heard being called out in the midst of the city noise. I
pushed the magazine out of my way, said I was skint and headed for
the entrance. The man looked at me disappointingly but I brushed it
off and sat in the warm coffee shop inside. After looking over at him
trying to hand out magazines relentlessly, I went back to apologise
and gave him the last £3 I had in change.
We
started talking and I asked him (we'll call him Dom) about his day.
Dom
said he had an hour left of his shift, showing me the 12 magazines
left to sell in order to make enough money for the day. "The
worst part is the ignorance, that people just walk by you and pretend
you don't exist."
With
that he stopped a man approaching the doors and asked if he wanted to
“help the homeless, help The Big Issue,” to which the suited man
replied 'na sorry not today'. I broke it down in my head I thought,
when you put it in literal terms like that "do you want to help
the homeless?" Saying no doesn't seem like an option.
Dom
asked three more people, all who looked at him sheepishly and tried
to avoid eye contact. 'I've been on the other side of it...I was
ignorant myself. But when you lose everything you understand that
they-we, are just normal people...this could happen to anyone.'
I
suggested how infuriating it must be sometimes to be looked down upon
by so many people daily, and asked how he sees through the negativity
– as Dom seemed such a positive young man. 'Yeah there's a lot of
arse holes but then you meet nice people like yourself who give me
the time of day.' A couple came up to him with a packet of crisps and
a fiver and he spoke to them like they were close friends. It turned
out the couple often came to speak to Dom.
I
asked my friend if he had a lighter, and Dom's colleague, who was
just finishing his shift- sifted through his torn, heavy duty bag,
and dumped his sleeping bag on the floor just to give me his own. I
pushed it back to him but he insisted I keep it. I thought how funny
it was that in a world where we have everything we want and
are rigid to give it away, people who go about their days with all
their belongings in two hands are so willing to share.
As
I wished them both all the best and got on my train, I couldn't help
but feel guilty at the £60 I'd spent the night before. I wondered
how valuable even half of that would be to Dom or his colleague and
instantly felt uneasy about how much I took what I had for granted.
Homelessness is an
ever growing problem and so many people are all too quick to brand
those affected with the stereotype of 'druggies' and 'wasters' before
getting to know them and discovering their story. I think if we as a
society looked at them as real people and less like outcasts, we
would be more inclined and engaged to start acting more productively
to help tackle this national poverty epidemic.
I can't give money to
every charity or buy every magazine from every person, but once in a
while just help as much as you can. Buy someone a cup of tea with
your spare change on a cold day, or even just talk and get to know
someone for 5 minutes. I think it might change your perspective
potentially as much as it changed mine.
