Homeless for Thanksgiving – Bre’Onna Clowney
Bre reminds us that family is what makes life complete. “Without them, every day I would be homeless.”
Homeless for Thanksgiving
Many have a different definition of what “homeless” means. Some feel like being homeless means not having a home. Some feel like being homeless is not having a place to stay and rest. Personally, I believe being homeless means not having a family.
You may think it’s odd, but when I’m not with people I call family, I feel out of place, like I don’t belong.
Family is the key to a home. When I go home, the first thing I see is my cat, but I call her my daughter. She stays in the basement, but once she hears the keys touching the door, she runs so fast upstairs to greet whoever is opening it. Greeting them with a loving nose rub and purring, even if she doesn’t know you. One day, if I were to open the door, and she wasn’t there, it simply wouldn’t feel like home.
Running behind me is my little brother, who’s an Ipad kid. Watching YouTube loudly, purposely trying to annoy me, but I’m used to it. Once he puts the Ipad down, he asks for a snack, and I always have to confirm if he can have it, with my mother who was following behind him as he ran into the house. Once I confirm, he eats the snack while again playing his loud video on his Ipad, laughing and teasing me to try and annoy me. I can’t imagine a day where I go
to open the door and not have him following me, laughing and playing around. The silence and incompleteness I would feel if he just wasn’t there.
As my mom is getting prepared to make dinner for the family, I think of how things would be if she wasn’t home. Once again, without my family I would feel incomplete. No noise, no conversation, no love. No concern from the cat, wondering if we arrived home. No noise from my little brother’s loud Ipad or him teasing me because he got a snack and I didn’t. No conversation, from my mother asking for help with dinner. No love, because if family
isn’t there, I don’t feel it.
Family pulls everything together in my book and makes life complete. Without them, my life would be silent, and every day I would be homeless.
Bre’Onna Clowney
November 18, 2022