In many ways Tom’s life was perfect. He was in his senior year of college at a prestigious university in New York. He had been working incredibly hard for almost four years to become a dentist, the occupation of his dreams. Tom also had more friends than anyone could count, although at times they resented him for his sharp tongue. But Tom’s life was not quite as charmed as it appeared to be from the outside.
Tom was broke. But broke might have been too generous a word. He had far less than just $0.  He had hundreds of thousands dollars in student loans and they continued to grow as he kept on his journey through college. Although Tom told everyone he lived in a small one-bedroom apartment in a rough part of the city, in reality he did not and spent many chilly nights at a local homeless shelter. If he was lucky, he would go out late with one of his friends who would then house him for a night after complaints about how far away his “apartment” was.
Although his secret was well hidden from his friends, the stress of homelessness was eating Tom up inside. He couldn’t go on living this double life, and shouldering this financial burden on his own. The stress of knowing that at any moment his friends would know his secret and immediately shun him followed him around everywhere he went.
On an especially cold night in mid-November Tom’s worst nightmares came to life. Tom’s closest friend Chuck had recently started to volunteer with a local Church group and had been doing a lot to help out the community. On this night, Chuck was serving dinner for the homeless at one of the shelters frequently used by Tom. When Tom walked up to the front of the line and saw Chuck, his face became colorless. Chuck almost dropped his serving spoon when he realized that Tom was homeless. The two awkwardly wondered off to talk.
“Why wouldn’t you just tell me?” questioned Chuck.
“I was too embarrassed of what you would think,” replied Tom, who by now was on the verge of tears.
“It doesn’t matter how much money you have, as long as we’re friends,” Chuck said. The two then continued to talk about how to improve Tom’s situation and what could be done to improve his living. The two talked for hours and decided that Tom could stay with Chuck until he was back on his feet. Even though Tom was nervous at first, when his secret came out everything was alright and his friends accepted him.