“It’s best not to hope. You take what you can get as you spot it.” Linda Tirado’s essay “This is Why Poor People’s Bad Decisions Make Sense”  was captivating and awe-inspiring. Out of all the reading and topics in class, her life account and struggle pushed beyond the normal boundaries of writing due to her bluntness and lack of compassion toward herself and others in similar situations. For example, when she speaks about her knowledge of knowing how to cook and prepare a meal, it is not because she is not capable of putting something together, it is because she does not have the means to do so.  In addition, when she pushes away the fact that she makes terrible financial decisions, she states, “I will never be not poor, so what does it matter.”

It is hard for me to believe that some people’s lives get to a point where they lose motivation, lose hope, and feel like there is no way out. After listening to those personal accounts from Invisible People, my view of homelessness turned completely around. As I have had both negative and positive experiences with homeless people, nothing matters when it comes to viewing each person as an individual.

Yet, the answer to all these problems cannot be solved by a quick fix. However, it can be solved by the reshaping of our roots and foundations. Education and society’s investment in children can cause a positive change when instilling proper attention and focus on social practices that aid the development of children on all levels. If children have roots that teach values and goal oriented thought process, homelessness would not occur. As this would be a daunting task, just as each homeless person should be judged individually, all children can create an impact by understanding and sharing their understanding of the world around them.