This song was introduced to me by one of my camp friends. I think this song summarizes a lot of the uncomfortableness people feel when passing someone begging for money at a red light. I want to say this feeling stems from a place of guilt because you cannot say why you are in a better place financially than them. In high school, I was involved with the New Orleans Covenant House for youths experiencing homelessness. We would partner with them to hold Sleep Outs on our football field to raise awareness for youths experiencing homelessness in our city. Going to a private school, we, as students, definitely lived in a bubble, so this was a way to burst that bubble and help those at my school realize not everyone has the same safety nets as us. It was eye-opening to realize there were people in our community who were the same age as us who lived a completely different lifestyle simply because of the hands of fate. A lot of the kids at Covenant House had either been kicked out possibly due to an abusive parent or a new stepparent stepping into the picture, but a great percentage of the youth identified as LGBTQ+ and had run away for not being accepted. Although sleeping on cardboard for one night in the cold of November could not grant me the right to say we could now empathize with the hardships others in my community have endured, it did allow students to become more compassionate towards other’s situations, which was a step in the right direction. 

Behind the Lyrics: 

The lyrics pretty much speak for themselves, but it is the story of Tenille Townes driving and seeing a woman holding a cardboard sign on the corner. She begins to wonder what circumstances in life brought them together and why she’s the one who is driving by. She humanizes the woman by explaining that she has probably lived a life and is somebody’s daughter just like her. Townes said that her “hope is that people just start recognizing the people around them. Music has a way of tearing down walls that we put up around us.”

Covenant House is a large nonprofit that provides resources and housing to youths who are experiencing homelessness and survivors of human trafficking. Every year an estimated 4.3 million youths experience homelessness. To break this statistic down further, one in 30 kids, ages 13 to 17, will experience homelessness each year.

Donate to Covenant House New Orleans: Donate to Covenant House New Orleans – Every Donation Counts! (covenanthousenola.org)