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by EMILY MELTON
Lifestyles Editor
On a trip home from Boone a couple weeks ago, I saw a man holding up a sign.
He was homeless.
A car passed by, and some kid yelled out the window and told him to get a job.
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The best advice I’ve ever received came from a homeless man.
I was 10 years old. I had just finished playing in a piano recital
and my family stopped at our usual spot: Anderson’s Cafe, famous for
having “the World’s Best Pecan Pie,” before closing down a few years
later.
I was eating M&M’s (the highlight of recital-Sunday’s).
When we pulled up to the restaurant, I folded my unfinished bag
of M&M’s into my pocket, got out of the car and followed my family
to the door.
Before we could get inside, two men stopped us.
They said they were homeless, they were looking for jobs but
didn’t have anywhere to go. They weren’t asking for money but something
to eat—anything to eat. Anything.
My family ignored their pleas, but while we were eating, I
spread a napkin across my lap and filled it with biscuits, bacon and
anything else I could slip off the table without entertaining the
attention of anyone who might have caught me.
When I was done, I snuck outside and presented the assortment to the two men.
And then, though I never shared my M&M’s with anyone, something told me to reach into my pocket.
That image - how thankful they looked for something that I
all-too-often took for granted - is one that I will probably never
forget.
I will especially remember what one of the men told me: “You are a good person, Emily. Don’t let anyone tell you you’re not.”
It was the only and probably last time I would see him, and
unbeknownst to him, his advice helped me through the turmoil of middle
and high school. Its helped me in college and it will likely continue
to help me through the many challenges I will face in the future.
The point is, in the eyes of the world, by the rules of society,
the two homeless men were just that: just a couple of homeless men, a
couple modern-day, before-the-ball Cinderella’s.
But if you ask me for the greatest piece of advice I’ve ever gotten, I’ll tell you where it came from.
Not from the words of Oprah, Ghandi or Abraham Lincoln (though I’m sure they have produced their fair share of great advice).
Instead, it came from a homeless man in a restaurant parking lot.
Just a homeless man.
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