Social work, youth work etc
After two inspirational years at the University in i Trondheim, my path still seemed very uncertain. As many others, I figuered a great way to discover what I wanted to do as a grown up, was to embark on a long journey. So, it happened, among other reasons, to sort this out...Little did I know that just after a few days I was about to get an indication concerning my future choices!
Warren provided useful wisdom (well, I realised this later):
- A story you can read [here].
- Warren also told me a story of one day outside "his" shop (his spot) in New York, standing with his nearly empty papercup, waiting for someone to
spend a couple of quarters for his upcoming lunch. A Wallstreet-type man walked past him, very ignorant and arrogant towards Warren, and into the little tobacco store.
Warren suddenly noticed a lot of fuzz from inside, and immediately recognised the Wallstreetman on his back on the floor. Warren suspected his reaction to be related to diabetes.
He immediately looked into his almost empty cup and considered whether he was to help this man or not, because nobody else did anything. Should he buy some sugar for him, thus reducing
his own lunch budget...? He bought some sweets, however, which he somehow managed to feed to the man. When Warren saw that this had effect, he went back out again.
After some time the man appeared outside again, still a bit unsteady, and looked at Warren, and presented a $10 bill which he put it in Warren's cup. Warren said his "God bless you",
and I think - or choose to believe that they both learned something from that incident.
A few years passed by, and I was studying to become a child and youth care worker. The direction was clear, but the path was still a bit uncertain...
and that's when I went to Minneapolis in 1999 with three study mates. Our objective: Obtain some understanding of everyday life of homeless youth and how I/we/society can
contribute to improving their lives! Even if this was part of our education, this experience obviously had a great deal of personal issues as well.
Meeting those kids, the interviews we did with them, the street workers, the methods, street corner society and the problems on several levels: All this served as a tool, directing me
on my way - I knew what I wanted to continue doing...
I have published a short version of "New Hope" [HERE]. (Sorry, Norwegian only...)