A Taste of Poverty

I know I have no idea what it is like
to be homeless or poor...
but I feel as though I have a better idea of it now.

On Saturday I lost my wallet after going to the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific with Project W.I.L.D. I had not realized that I had lost it until Sunday afternoon. I panicked. I scoured my room twice, thrice over to no avail. I e-mailed the community service commission transportation directors then left them pitiful sounding voicemails the next day. I told everyone I ran into about my situation. It just started to consume me. I found myself thinking, gosh, what do I have left to eat? Can I last until I go home for Spring break? Would I start asking to borrow money from people?

Money, or lack thereof can be so powerful. When you can't get something to eat you start to think differently. I wouldn't advise everyone to go out and lose their wallets, but I feel as though I've changed. So, you must be thinking - - why would losing my wallet make my day? Well... it gave a truckload of people the opportunity to help me get it back!

Here they are:

• Brandon Erickson and Huynh-Nhu Nguyen were the first two I called, each told me where to go and who to talk to

• Kathy Tom, fellow WILD'er and co-Community Service Commission Transportation Director, had already thoroughly searched the vans but she offered to go again this morning! She also made phone calls to the van maintenance company to check if they had found it.Amanda Mull, tracked down the exact van I was in and gave me the contact information for Philipinos for Community Health, the other project that had used that van after us

• Philipinos for Community Health (PCH), read on you'll see

• Anthony Nguyen, ditto

And the people that offered to spot me:

• Megumi Tomatsu
• Jason Kwong
• Annie Chiang
• Laura Kwan
• Huynh-Nhu Nguyen
  

Here is an e-mail that I sent out just this afternoon:

Dearest WILD, I want to share a story with you...

There is nothing quite like the Community Service Commission family! Pilipinos for Community Health used the vans after us and found my wallet, turned in my wallet to Farheen* and then Farheen* put my wallet into the WILD mailbox.

Meanwhile I had been wildly contacting Kathy Tom and Amanda Mull our CSC transportation directors and they were SO helpful in helping to track down the van I was in, all the numbers, and the keys and Kathy was even offering to check the vans for me personally so I ended up in the CSC office talking to Amanda.

Just as I stepped out of her office to call PCH, Anthony, the assistant comissioner was like "HEY your wallet has been in your mailbox for days!"

I wouldn't have even thought to check the mailbox! Goodness gracious. Anyway, I just wanted to share that story with all of you!!!! Trust your CSC family!!!!!!!!!!

Project WILD and CSC Love,
Michelle

*I later found out that it was probably Anthony that put my wallet into the WILD mailbox because Farheen had no idea what I was talking about when I stormed her office to thank her! I am going to thank each of the people that helped me in a special way...


Moral of the story - when things go wrong, take the time to enjoy being helped! Whether you know them personally or not, these people are coming to your rescue, they are looking out for you, and they are going out of their way to help make things better - - for YOU!