You and Me

Gerard Way’s Point of View

“You could always get community service hours by volunteering somewhere,” my Mom told me.

“You don’t think it’s too late?” I asked her, not wanting to waste my time for something that won't even help me in the future.

“Gerard, it’s never too late, and think about how much you'd be helping people. You could volunteer at a homeless center or help young children with a life threatening disease. Stop being so damn selfish and do something good,” my Mom told me.

“I'm not being selfish!” I protested. “I just want to go to college. I don’t think that that’s too selfish considering that it could make the world better.”

I went into one of my pouty moods. My Mom always threatened to slap me when I did this.

“Knock off the pouty act and suck it up. Now, you can volunteer at the homeless shelter tomorrow and get a few hours there, at least. I don’t want you calling and complaining the entire time, got it?” my Mom told me.

“Mom, I know, okay? I'm twenty, not ten. I don’t mind helping others; it’s just the work that’s involved that puts me off. I'm lazy. That’s it. It’s pure laziness, and you know what else? I will volunteer at the homeless shelter tomorrow, and I will come home with a good heart,” I told her before going to my room.

Once I was there, I got online to see how many other places there were that needed volunteers. Quite a few places popped up. I didn’t even know that there were that many community service places in Jersey. I saw some links for an animal shelter, a recreation center, and then a lot of other places like youth camps and so on. I didn’t too much want to volunteer at the animal shelter because I had horrible allergies. It was almost as if I was allergic to fur in general. I could try the recreation center. Who knows, it may even be fun for me.

“Program for the mentally disabled,” I read aloud.

Hmm… it’d be a challenge, but it’d definitely get me some hours in. I looked at some of the programs they had and saw one for teenagers with mental disabilities. It was mostly a spring and summer program because of the huge amount of fieldtrips they took. Each person would be a mentor to one teenager and over the summer, they'd help them get to know themselves and learn about various aspects.

“That sounds a lot better than cleaning dishes at a homeless center,” I mumbled.

I went back downstairs to tell my Mom about my latest discovery.

“Mom, guess what I’d rather do than volunteer at a homeless shelter,” I said.

“You are not going to volunteer at a library because you'll just sit there all day,” was the first thing she said.

“I was not going to suggest that, but a summer program for the mentally disabled,” I told her.

She seemed to be very interested in the idea.

“I like that. It’s a wonderful idea Gerard. You're pretty good with special needs children too, considering on how well you get along with Selena,” she told me.

Selena was my eleven year old cousin. She had autism, but she wasn’t treated any differently than any other family member (that I liked) in my family.

“I know. Look, they start accepting volunteers tomorrow, so could I skip out on cleaning dishes at the homeless place?” I asked. I used my best puppy dog eyes.

“Sure, as long as you're contributing to the community, then I'm perfectly fine with it,” she told me.

I quickly hugged her and then went to look up some more things on the program. I wanted to be more than prepared for what was about to happen. People with all different types of disabilities went to the program. In all honesty, I hoped that I didn’t get something that would be too serious and… depressing. I don’t think that I could handle it well. Like, if their life was on the line, I just might break down and cry because I'm not too good with death, even though I’ll pretty much be forced to accept it when it comes.

I officially couldn’t wait until tomorrow when I would be able to begin working with someone. I thought about who they would be all night long. If they were a boy or a girl, what disability they had, if they'd even let me talk to them, if they'd like me and vice versa, and so much more. I wanted Saturday to come so badly.