After I recovered from severe mental illness, I began to volunteer with Cincinnati’s homeless. I was curious, wanting to meet homeless people. During my own four years without an address, I was isolated. I never entered a shelter, visited a food bank, or asked for help. But there is great diversity in the homeless community.

On Saturday mornings, I occasionally volunteer at a local shelter, serving free food to the people living there, with the other volunteers. As I describe my own year living outside, the residents always seem captivated.

I am also captivated by them. A man in his 50’s shares his experiences losing everything, including health, job, and family. As he speaks, he reminds me of a witty college math professor. I later discovered that he had a PhD in engineering.

Over the holidays, I volunteer with programs that cater to the community as a whole, including the homeless. One of the programs provides festive Thanksgiving and Christmas meals to the community, with colorful decorations and flower arrangements. Preparing dinner for all the attendees takes volunteers about eight hours, but volunteers seem to enjoy talking and getting caught up on personal news while fixing the meal.

During these dinners, I play background violin music for the two to three hundred people who attend. Over the last few years, it has become a holiday tradition.

As I break for a minute or two between classical music and arrangements of traditional hymns, I see dirty people, wearing rags, enjoying the sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce. From a distance, some appear aloof, staring into space.

After I finish preforming, a dirty man with graying hair sits down at the piano and plays beautifully, from memory. I join a young mother at one of the tables, and I notice the flower arrangement. As I eat dinner myself, I hear her impressions of teachers at the local elementary school. Her three children tell me which games and toys that they want for Christmas.

Schizophrenia once robbed me of a normal life. But today, on medication, I am a violinist again, and a college graduate. I am productive, and I enjoy relationships, as a daughter and a friend.

It is my hope that the homeless people I meet in Cincinnati will also return to normal life, including the struggling engineer. I hope he will be reunited with his family.

I truly believe that each person makes a unique contribution. For those who suffer from mental illness, finding the right medication may be the key to starting a new journey in life. It was for me.  There is hope.