Everybody Wants to be Heard

By Elyse Lodge and McKenzie Pedersen

We ended up at the DI purely by chance. Both nursing students, we had been helping out with a breakfast at the University when there happened to be an excess of food. It was suggested that it be taken to the DI, and we happily volunteered to be the runners for this task. Not really thinking too much about it when we arrived, we casually inquired about serving lunches. Well, next thing we knew we had made a commitment to serve one lunch a week. The following couple of months spent doing this were great! We decided we would like to become more involved in order to have further interactions with the clients. So we set up an orientation date and we were shown all the possible areas we could help out. Both of us wanted a taste of what it’s truly like to be homeless, so volunteering at night immediately spiked our interest. As a result, earlier this week we had the opportunity to spend a few hours at the DI (from 10 pm until 2 am) and participate in a sub-culture of our city which few Calgarians will ever witness.

We had no idea what to expect. When we arrived, we were told we could help by signing people in. We sat at the entrance to the second floor of the DI. We were instructed to complete a rather straightforward task; we were to take down each client’s name before they claimed a mat for the night. Seemed simple enough, however, what we received at the door became much more than names; we got stories.

As soon as we sat down we were joined with company. People pulled up chairs and talked to us throughout the evening. These people didn’t want to talk about the every day things we often waste our words with when talking to our own friends; they wanted to go deeper. They were craving conversation. They wanted people to laugh with and people who would listen to them and make them feel as though what they have to say is important. They told us about everything from their families to their favorite novels. We discussed their hobbies, their jobs, their passions and their hurt. We heard about where they were coming from and where they are going. We talked about school, work, children, God; purpose. Neither of us expected anything like what happened. We are truly amazed at what these people have to say. We are both filled with so much admiration for these new friends. We took pleasure in every second of being there and feel so fortunate to have spent that night with such incredible individuals, sharing such raw, real emotion.

It was simply an incredible opportunity to love others. It was easily one of the most powerful experiences of our lives and we look forward to many more evenings like this one.