Volunteering

Brett and I woke up at 4 this morning to help with The Tommy Apostolos Fund shopping spree. The Fund pairs kids from low-income families with volunteers who take them through a Kohl's store to get $150 in back-to-school clothes. After shopping, the kids are able to get free haircuts from a local beauty school.

Of course, participating in an event like this makes you feel good (who wouldn't), but toward the middle of the morning a child said something that stabbed me in the heart.

I was "managing" a line of kids in the store and one of the girls started to tell me that her and her twin sister live in different places because their parents are divorced. Without thinking I said, "Really? My parents are divorced too."

It has been YEARS since I've felt the need to talk about the divorce of my parents--it is just a part of who I am. Since my parents divorced when I was two I don't really feel the need to discuss it. But I do remember that when I was little the whole concept made no sense to me. I was sad that my parents didn't live together. I felt left out and different. I wanted to feel the comfort and security I was sure my peers were getting (yes, this is the skewed point of view of a grade-schooler, but it was how I felt).

But today... talking to that girl who was waiting in line to get back-to-school clothes through the Tommy Apostolos Fund… I saw myself. I know what it's like to live with a single mom and barely have enough money to pay the rent and buy food, let alone get a new pair of shoes for school.

People often say they volunteer to "give back." By volunteering today I was given back a memory from where I come from.