Teenage Runaway

My home did not feel safe. I felt safer away from home where I could have control over who was in my life and I could choose where it was safe to go to sleep. After leaving home I survived through the kindness of many strangers. 

I slept in parked cars in Cloverdale and fruit orchards in the Okanagan. I sat up all night in the lobby of the post office in downtown White Rock (it is now a gelato shop). I washed up in gas station washrooms and learned that I could wash out my underwear and wring them dry in the cloth towel dispensers before putting them on again. They were a little damp but were wearable. When others shared, I used drugs and alcohol but it wasn't often. 

Most of the time I was alone; wandering aimlessly around, resting when tired, talking with other homeless people, hitch-hiking from one town to another. Many kind folks gave me money for food or took me to restaurants to buy me a meal. I feel grateful nothing bad happened to me during the time of homelessness. I felt lost but in control of my life and safety but with no real understanding or plan of how life could change for the better, I was just surviving the best I could with each new day. I remember one kind man who was about my dad's age. He gave me a ride through the Okanagan, bought me a meal, gave me some money, and asked what my parents thought about me being out on my own. I hadn't thought about it before. My dad had been lost at sea and my mom was struggling with the loss and our sense of home and family had fallen apart.

Eventually I moved in with a friend's family and finished my last year of high school. I applied for welfare and was given money for room and board. I worked part time as a cook and carhop at A&W in White Rock and managed to graduate. I had always been a good student and school was a positive experience for me. 

When I travel to some of those places that bring up vivid memories of my time of homelessness I feel empathy for those who are homeless now. I don't feel empathy for those who hurt others or commit crimes but have empathy for those who find themselves in a homeless situation and don't know how to find their way home. 

At this time I am a program manager of a community mental health program and have shared my story with colleagues. We support mental health recovery and in a small way hope our work can prevent some people from experiencing homelessness.