A Night with the Drop Inn

As I drove from Oxford to the city there was much chatter in the van. We were talking about where we were from and other things about ourselves. Eventually the question arose... "what did everyone think it was going to be like?" Everyone had their one ideas about what to expect when we pulled up and we had been informed by others who had previously gone about their experiences.
As we pulled up we parked just down from the Drop Inn, the first spot we saw, basically. There were men hanging around outside a building which gave away the Drop Inn. As we made our way through the small crowd we were greeted by two men who were there to eat and headed outside to hang with their buddies. We crept inside, unsure of where to go or what to do, we stood at the front desk waiting to talk to a man that looked like he was in charge. I couldn't help but to look around the room as we waited for his attention, things were not exactly as I had expected them to be. It made me feel better that those that were in the shelter were dressed warm with coats and hats; their clothes did not look too badly tattered, especially not how I thought they were going to look. We were shown over to the serving counter where we met the man that was in charge of serving the food that night. He showed us each what to do, and I was put on soup. I didn't know how I felt about this spot because I heard stories from the day before where some guys became extremely angry when they began serving beans and ran out of the entree.
There was a lot of down time because dinner was running late tonight. As I stood behind the counter I felt as if it were a barrier that wasn't supposed to be crossed. It was a literal barrier, but I felt that the meaning of this barrier was so much greater. It almost felt more like a social class barrier and that is a bad way to look at things, but it's the truth.
We started serving food, and they always begin with the "disabled" people; I was very surprised at how many people were thrown into the "disabled" category. I felt, just based on looks, that some of the people who came through the line were not what you would consider disabled. Some of them seemed to have no physical defects at all, but maybe there was something more; perhaps some of these folks were diabetic or had some other disease that I was unaware of. As the night went on I couldn't help but smile; however, I wondered what the people that were coming through the line were thinking of my smile. I didn't want it to come off as a snobby smile, but instead as a sincere smile, because even though I could never fully understand their feelings and way of life I would certainly try my hardest to put it into perspective and make sense of it all. There were not very many women in the shelter, and most of them did not talk to me let alone even make eye contact.
There was one girl in particular, and I say girl because she looked to be no more than in her mid-20s. She did not seem familiar with the Drop Inn because she walked right on by the man at the end that was taking names. She did not speak through the line, and I was somehow intrigued by her so I watched her eat. She sat by herself and did not socialize with anyone else; after she gobbled her food as fast as she could it seemed, she was gone just as quickly as she had appeared. I guess I'll never know her story, but maybe it's an interesting one.
I also talked with one of the young men that was in the rehab program there at the Drop Inn. He had come to help me get the rest of the soup out of the pan before switching over to beans. He was not much older than myself, perhaps in his mid-20s, about 24 or 25 years old. He really began opening up to me and explaining his situation. I remember him telling me that he went to UC for 2 years as a robotics and computer major; he began getting into drugs and things just went down from there. He transferred to a school in Georgia for a quarter and then came back to Cincinnati to attend Cincinnati State, where he became even more heavily involved with drugs. He dropped out and was slumming it for a while before coming to the Drop Inn to start getting his life on track. He told me that he was from Sharonville, which is a town just outside of Cincinnati and that he went to Princeton High School. He said that he is trying to get his life back on track so that he go back to school and make something of himself. He was very nice and genuine when speaking with him and I felt bad because I realize that a lot of experimenting goes on in college, and this sort of thing could happen to any of my friends. They experiment once, think it's great, and continue to use until they are so addicted that they are using more than they should or dealing. It seemed to me like a very real situation, one that I could not view myself in personally, but some people I know. I was very proud of him for wanting to get his life back on track and return to college to make something of himself, it is very noble of him to admit that he indeed had a problem and was willing to face it head on and make changes for the better.
This was the only person at the Drop Inn that I spoke extensively with, but I got other remarks from patrons. Wanting to know where we were from and just thanking us for our services that evening. I felt that most of the people there were very accepting and thankful that we were there serving them and helping them out. Some of the men; however, liked us being there a little too much. There was much flirting going on especially since 3 of the 4 of us were girls; I noticed that some of the guys would talk to Amanda, Abbey and I and never say a word to Joe. I guess that is just how things go, not even there but anywhere in society, guys may be more inclined to talk to a female than a male.
All-in-all I felt that this was a great experience and I've been talking about it with my friends and family for the last few days, telling them of the things I saw and heard. I feel good for going to help them even though it was for class, it was something that I enjoyed and would do again. I was always so afraid of the homeless people because I would always see them begging outside of Bengals and Reds games and they kind of freaked me out. But seeing them from this perspective and in this different atmosphere my fears have somewhat dissipated. I realize now that I should not take anything in my life for granted because one day it could all be taken away.