May 19, 2017
Why did I want to become a “social worker”? Some might suggest it was due to my environment or the plight of First Nations people. Of course those factors contributed to my decision. However what made me want to become a helper can be pin pointed to one incident, one moment in time, one brief passing. It was only a few years ago when I began to share this story with others, for some reason maybe I felt it didn’t matter or it was too wishy-washy. It was and still is something deeply personal to me. Somehow sharing it with others cheapens it but none the less...When I was sixteen I had the opportunity to participate in a high school native study trip. I had never traveled before and up until that point I led a very sheltered structured life. While at our stop in Vancouver I had ventured away from the group. So I decided to just walk alone and was pretty much loving life in the big city. Then I must have turned a wrong corner because I stumbled across a street that was filled with “homeless people.”In my naive mind I knew they were ‘homeless’ from watching US television. The atmosphere had shifted inside me. I became guarded and at the same time I was in awe. In my naivety I did not expect to see rows and rows of “homeless people” in MY country. This was not the Canada that I knew and loved. I thought homelessness was something that happened in the states or in far away countries I never heard of. Then out o