User:EricD

=Analytical Writing=

Personal Essay
I remember the first time I saw a homeless person. It was 2002 and I was in Seattle, WA. I was in the back seat of my father’s car, and we were driving past the highway. Underneath the overpass was a homeless man. At the time, I was astonished. Where I grew up, no one lived in the streets. Being from a small town, everyone knows everybody and that meant there was always a place to stay. What made this rugged man so astonishing to me was seeing reality at its worst. It was my first time in a big city at the time and everything I saw that day was memorizing, but what topped it off was seeing a homeless person. To me, a homeless person was only seen on TV and a fabrication to the real world. No one was really truly homeless. How could our country be so cruel, right? After living in Seattle, and seeing homelessness every day, it breaks my heart and puts thoughts among questions in my mind. Questions like, how’d this person or that person become homeless? How come no one’s helping them? Where do they sleep? How do they eat, use the bathroom, and how could they escape from being homeless? These questions wandered through my head every time I saw a man sleeping under a bridge, or a woman asking for change in front of a McDonalds. Most people would assume they put themselves there, and they deserve to be there. I know many people who think that they’re just lazy people that didn’t want to get a job, or that all of them are junkies and waste all of their money on booze or their next fix. Close minded conclusions are what make life harder for people who do suffer homelessness. I try my best not to assume that every homeless person is an addict. I try to think about people who lose their mortgage; people who lose their families, people who can’t pay their medical bills or pay their debts off, the people who can’t get into housing because of mistakes they’ve made that make it impossible for them to receive some sort of second chance. I read once that it’s legal to deny sex offenders housing. What some people don’t know is how easy it is to become a sex offender. All you have to do is urinate on the side of the road at night in the middle of nowhere, or walk past your window naked in your own home. Not everyone who is a sex offender is a child molester. Not everyone who is a felon is going to steal your car, or deal drugs in their apartment. In fact, I believe that most people, who do do those things, have little or no convictions with the law. Some of these people who live on the streets, living in the streets, it makes it hard for a sex offender to receive help with his/her mental issues, or someone who stole once before, not to steal again just to survive the day, or deal drugs just to make some money to feed yourself and/or your family. Homelessness is slowly draining the world of civil people. I wonder what it would take to make sure that no one is left behind. TO make sure that people can get a job, a place to live, and be able to pay their bills, and get the help they need. Would it take free healthcare? Or how about a bill to pass that requires a certain percentage of government tax be dedicated to keeping people off the streets and into homes and working? Maybe passing a law requiring everyone in America to do some sort of volunteer work and/or volunteer pay out? I don’t really know how to end the suffering of millions of people from freezing winters and dangerous streets. What I do know is that something needs to change, and I’ll try and do what I can, to help make that change. Even if it’s just one person at a time.

Self Assessment
There were a lot of things that I could have improved in this class. I didn't really spend too much time on research or really the analytical part of the class. I loved being in class and I learned alot from it. It's just, I had a hard time getting into the whole writing thing. With work and other classes, it was hard to concentrate.

Things that I would change in this class are slim. I enjoyed being in class and looked forward to talk about the things we discussed and watched. I liked watching the documentaries. It was good stuff.

I say, keep the class the same.

EricD