I remember working in a coffee house and having a regular customer who slept on the metal bench across the street.

She liked me and would bring me in gifts, things like lottery tickets.

One day, a co-worker, a psychology student at the local college, asked me what I did to have her like me so much when she was also so nice to her, always giving her free coffee, etc. I looked at her and said, “You give her free coffee? I don’t even give my husband free coffee.”

So why did she like me? Because I treated her like any other customer that I had.

Because homeless people are still people.

And ReThink Homelessness, a Florida-based advocacy group attempts to remind us of just this fact through this latest video, which has since gone viral.

This video asked homeless people to write down something about themselves that others wouldn’t know just by walking past them, and the results definitely tug at the heartstrings.

These are their Cardboard Stories. ‪#‎RethinkHomelessness‬

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Editor: Travis May

Photo: Video Still