It was a day when the big looming clouds filled the sky with a foreshadowing color of rain when my friend approached me to pass out pizzas to homeless people.

This wasn’t planned or anything since it was only the leftovers that they did not sell at my friend’s job. So we got in the car and began looking for people in need.

Just as we entered a run-down plaza it began pouring. And then, that's when we found an old lady. We had to be sure she was homeless as we did not want to offend anybody. She had a cart filled with what seemed like junk, and she was sitting in a corner avoiding the rain. That was the first hint. There was a sign placed on her lap stating “hungry please some money.” That was the second.

I got out of the car and walked towards the woman and told her if she wanted some warm pizza, but as I came closer her face looked like had given up in every sense; like the word hope was erased from her dictionary. Then I saw her cold, blue, dreary eyes that stared straight through me.

As I gave her the pizza, she gasped the words “thank you” as though it hurt her very soul to utter a few words. When I went back to the car, I stopped and turned my head towards her wanting to ask what's wrong. Then, uncertainty struck me and I felt if I would try to say anything of the sort then she would be incensed with my naive self, so I left.

We only had two more pizzas, so we left and found another person. This guy was different. He had a look of despondency on his face, but it was as if he meant it.

I gave him the pizza and afterwards he voluntarily told me his situation. I nodded my head with every sentence as he told me how he was fired and he had kids to feed. After that sentence, I poked my head to the left and right to see where his kids was but I could not find them. I asked where they were, so he smoothly told me “with my wife” along with another story. Also the man said “ my kids want to go to college and have a better life than him.” His story seemed to be full of holes, and then that's when I told him I needed to go. He quickly stopped me and asked if I could spare him some money. It suddenly hit me. He had an ulterior motive.

And so my friend took out his wallet and gave him money. In return, he gave a smile that made me feel like I was conned. That experience had left a bad taste in my mouth. Little did I know that the next people I would meet would make me forget the experience.

When we entered the park we saw what looked like two guys running, yelling, and enjoying themselves in the rain. It seemed as though they were on cloud nine. They didn’t look like homeless people, but then we saw carts near them with signs on top stating they were homeless.

I asked them if they would want some pizza? They readily replied “sure, we'd love some pizza.” We gave them the pizza and they looked at it as if it was a lottery ticket worth millions. I’ve never seen anyone so appreciative of anything before in my life. The two seemed beatific as ever embracing the rain like little kids. I was stupefied by the fact that they valued the little things in life given their situation. 

Every experience I had was different, but they all had one thing in common and that was each person had nothing. Then I realized from the two guys maybe, having nothing can make you realize you have everything.