For the past year, my mother and I have been what you might call homeless. At present we have somewhere to stay, but it’s a big burden for everyone involved.
So begins Sergio’s application for a Project Resilience Grant from The MJ Project.
Now I’m not looking for a pity party, that’s not my style. In fact, I find it a divine privilege to go through the trials of life.
That’s just like Sergio, a friend of MJ’s for several years now. He’s an outlier, a talented musician with the soul of a poet. An encounter with this young man leaves one with the sense he just might know a thing or two about life that the rest of us do not.
The good news is it looks like we’ll be moving into a place of our own next month. Fingers crossed.
Quick story about Sergio. A while back, he was a real long shot to graduate from high school. He also had a penchant for a sunflower tie clasp worn by a certain tutor at the school. “Betcha that sunflower I walk,” he dared after yet another day of questionable progress toward walking the graduation line of his class. “Sure,” was the answer – that tie clasp was going nowhere! Fast forward a miracle later. “Got my sunflower?” Sergio asked, smirking beneath his cap and gown. I unbuttoned my jacket and removed my favorite tie clasp. “I’m proud of you,” I offered as I paid off the bet. The delayed response, typically Sergio, brow furrowed, then a smile like sunshine: “Come to think of it, so am I.”
For the first time in a while, it will be just me and my mother again, and now that we have a new space, I plan on making the best out of our newfound stability. We have the rent covered but not much else, and we’ll need some essentials, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. I know how to budget and bargain shop, so that will come in handy. After that, I’d like to start a garden to grow our own produce, maybe sell some at the farmers market in the future.
Perhaps through his struggles, Sergio does know some things that we don’t, especially about the value of an education and what it feels like to have that opportunity taken away, which at the moment is his reality. He is a private person, loathe to complain, and one of only a few of our recipients to take advantage of the anonymity these stories gladly offer.
It’s just been hard, not even having a place to put your stuff, you know?
Thankfully, we do not.
But not for long. We’ll get some cleaning supplies, toiletries, healthy food, all steps to be prepared to go back to school next semester. Get back to my music where I belong.
Sergio is a Music and Business major, an avid reader whose legendary library full of requests from The MJ Project will soon be freed from storage to reside in a place of honor, in a room he can call his very own.
How cool is that?
“The start of something new, brings the hope of something great.” -Author Unknown
#loveshismom
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