wow.

time has gone by. so to cure your burning desire for me,

Over the course of one year, a little over a million children will get the chance to sleep under the stars, learn valuable life skills, and enjoy the risks of fending for themselves. And this opportunity doesn’t come in the form of a camp with a three-thousand dollar price tag: it’s free – and priceless. At the end of Horatio Alger, Jr.’s Ragged Dick, we learn that our favorite title character is well on his way to becoming a successful young lad. Of course, young Dick could have been born into the role which he is about to assume. But his time spent on the streets, where he learned all-important traits such as hard work, generosity, asceticism, and honesty, undeniably contributed to the character we have come to feel such a fondness for over the course of Alger’s slender volume. No other experience could have shaped Dick so strongly. Contrary to popular belief, homelessness is not a “problem” that needs to be “solved” – it is instead an opportunity which we should embrace for the skills it teaches young children in their formative years, the freedom it grants them, and the appreciation it fosters in everyone.
First and foremost, homelessness teaches children invaluable life skills. Dick Hunter would never have learned the importance of elbow grease and saving money had he not been a young man of the streets. When a homeless child comes up short, they feel the consequences firsthand. What better way to learn than the hard one?
Another important aspect of homelessness is the freedom it grants children during their years of rebellion. When Johnny Nolan, a character from Ragged Dick, got a place to stay, he promptly ran away, for he felt “lonely” (11-12). Alger’s narration explains: “It is often the case that the young vagabond of the streets…gets so attached to his precarious but independent mode of life, that he feels discontented in any other.” Spike Gillespie’s article There’s No Place Like Home ...(That’s Why I Left) echoes the sentiment: “Most will tell you that’s why they’re out on the streets. They’ve convinced themselves it’s the ultimate form of freedom.” But who’s really doing the convincing? The teens? Or is it Spike Gillespie trying to convince you, the reader, that living alone is somehow not the ultimate form of freedom?
Children who have spent time homeless also learn to be more grateful for what they do have. And, should they end up as lucky and well-off as Ragged Dick, they will no doubt appreciate their home and steady source of income infinitely more than they would have had they always had these things. It’s not only the ones who have been homeless who become more thankful either. The mere knowledge that there are others worse off than you is a good incentive to count your blessings.
The problem that needs to be solved here is not homelessness itself, but instead the common misconception that homelessness is a problem at all. Think of all the bias that goes into education about the homeless – English teachers tell students to write essays describing homeless children’s “plight.” Instead we should be writing about the rich children, who covet the freedom homeless children enjoy. The rich do not get to decide what they eat – it has all been carefully planned out by a nutritionist. They do not get to choose their activities – their parents choose what languages they will study and what instruments and sports they will play at an early age.
Clearly, we should not spend our time studying the lucky when others perish before us. We must open our eyes and address the real problem. This fallacy that homeless children are worse off than the rich has been going on for too long. Something needs to be done. It is a downright outrage that we, as a society, continue to focus on an issue that is not a problem at all.

it's not completely done, but i'm sure you get the general idea. and if you don't, you never will.

and i henceforth embark upon what will probably be another rather long hiatus. bye!