07/14/2015
Be Careful what you wish for... everyone wants success when it's at a distance... how do you know that you've achieved success. Is the measurement only by your definition? Yes! This homeless man at one point was one of the most highly intelligent men in his graduated college class... at HARVARD LAW SCHOOL... that's right... HARVARD LAW SCHOOL...
When I was in college at Penn State University, for a few years I always saw the same homeless man... one... one little old homeless man in State College... now I'm from Chicago, I've seen homeless men before, so I thought nothing of it... but one day, I decided to approach and and ask him if he was hungry. He said "no thank you sir"... I said "Are you sure? I would like to get you some Roy Rodgers." (For those at Penn State that remember that awesome place... ha ha ha...) But again he said "No Thank you" SO I decided to stay and talk to him and asked him his name… he said “Kenny”… So where you from Kenny?... Right here in State College… ok, you must like it here? “Not really, but this is where I am now.” “Now?? What do you mean?”… ok, so let me give you all the snapshot in detail of his story…
Kenny, graduated from Penn State in the 70s in the top 5% of his graduating class. Both his parents were married over 50-years and lived in State College. Kenny was working as a successful CPA in Los Angeles, CA and made big bucks… (back then over $100,000 was BIG BUCKS)… Then his mother gets sick, he flies back to care for her and then she dies. While he was here… his father obviously heart broken, so Kenny stayed a little longer to take care of his dad. Then a few months later, his dad dies. Now at this point… in Kenny’s mind… he lost everything! So he decided to take care of the house and his parents affairs and he lived off the money he made already for over 5 years, but in that time he LOST his will to do anything or go anywhere. He was eventually forced to leave his home and for 10+ years just never had the energy or drive to continue his life from before because it wasn’t worth it to him. After hearing his story. I check with one of the Penn State Football Coaches, Coach Ganter, he checked out his name with the bursar’s office and sure enough, it was true. Now I’m only a 19-year old kid and the whole story sounded bizarre and strange, but after Coach Ganter said that he did graduate in accounting from Penn State and such… besides being empathetic… I decided to help him anyway. Because the reason why Kenny told me no he wasn’t hungry… because he said doesn’t take handouts from people. Which I thought was strange, remember I’m 19-years old… so what I decided to do was to buy him food and I left it near him and said, I’ll be right back can you hold this? Then I was gone, I think he knew I wasn’t coming back, after about 20-minutes, because I watched him from McClanahan’s window, he started eating. I had the feeling that he was going to. After that, weekly for about a year and half, I would buy food, the sub sandwiches, etc. and leave in the same spot, where I normally saw Kenny. As well as Penn State Football gear, etc, I even gave him a Penn State football jacket that of course was given to me. Even a pair of turf shoes I left for him, guessing his shoe size. The next day or so, I noticed him wearing them, so that made me a little happy.
Point is, Kenny didn’t want to beg for handouts, but he knew he needed things. I noticed in talking to him that he would want the things and the food, etc. But more importantly, it was just nice talking to him every now and then. Reading this story about this man that graduated from Harvard Law School wasn’t as shocking to me… but I will say this, people, if you think success is money, power, fame… YOU ARE HIGHLY MISTAKEN!!! Get over yourself…seriously… HELP ONE ANOTHER…
Now I haven’t told many people about that story about Kenny… but I’m sure you all know someone or a family member that is simply down on their luck and don’t have the energy to help themselves. So think of a way that you actually can help them without them feeling more embarrassed by their situation or dealing with their own mental illness. Because one day… IT COULD BE YOU… that’s … just want to shout out to my man attorney Kevin Hardy, Jr. for bringing this article to light in his Facebook post…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/the-homeless-man-who-graduated-from-harvard-law-school-with-chief-justice-john-roberts/2015/07/13/63257b5c-20ca-11e5-bf41-c23f5d3face1_story.html?postshare=9671436837364560
Alfred Postell may be the most academically distinguished man living on the District’s streets.
