im sure if you searched through my posts you'd know a little about my time as a homeless person. I know I’ve posted about it in peices before... but never in this extent. A few certain people have asked me for the full story, and id rather have it all written out once and for all, where I can just refer to the thread when I need to explain the circumstances to anyone. WARNING THIS IS A LONG ASS STORY in fact, i feel like im gonna be telling my life story since all the details that make up the circumstances. Feel free to comment however you want.
This was the end of last may. I had just turned 18. I lived in evergreen park IL. I had lived there since i was 7. I was about to graduate high school. I was all set to go to Columbia college downtown. I had my wonderful long term relationship, i worked over 40 hours a week between 2 jobs, one at u.p.s. and one at McDonalds. I had 10 grand in my bank account. Life was good.too good
then my parents dropped a bombshell on me. They had been keeping it secret from me for months that they had planned to move to Joliet IL to live with my grandparents. They were going to sell the house who’s bills I had all too often helped pay. Needless to say I wasn’t happy, and they knew I wouldn’t be, which is why they kept me in the dark. Our relationship was already rocky enough with my parents pilfering money from me.. My old man was a drunk and a bad gambler, he only made $13 an hour after tips. My mom is a Waitress. She disapproved of my relationship, and had even gotten into a fistfight with my girlfriend and so our relationship was at an all time low. Neither of my parents have highschool diplomas. I instantly told my folks no, I wasnt going anywhere. They insisted I was, and should, bet I outright refused. My life was in evergreen park and the surrounding ‘burbs, not 35 miles southwest of there. How was I going to go to college? I had already passed up a dorm because I was going to take a bus to the train and take the train to school! This was a disaster, and I felt powerless. I graduated in June. A week later I was going to move. I had told my parents everyday I was not going to go. So the night before they were going to move to Joliet, I packed all my things (I don’t own much, im not very materialistic) into my friends ‘93 s10-blazer. The only thing I couldn’t bring was my wonderful queen sized bed. I had originally planned to strap it to the roof, but it was raining. My parents never noticed me leave because they were used to me leaving in the middle of the night as I had for many years being the insomniac that I am.
I went to my girlfriends house and slept in her bed with her that night. I knew my parents wouldn’t call or come by, because of the scuffle my mother had with my gf the previous NewYears. The next day I went to work as usual and spent the night at a motel with my girl. She seemed to like it that I had threw in the towel at my family. The next two weeks I just stayed with friends. I kept all my possessions at my gf’s with the exception of a small bag my friends had nicknamed my “home” since I practically lived out of the bag.
It was very hard to go to work and even harder sleep at night.. A few nights I even spent awake wandering, or sitting in parks with my gba. It was ok. I was carefree. I had no bills in my responsibility for the first time in many years. My parents would call different friends of mine. I had my friends lie. Sometimes they slipped up. I felt insecure by most of my friends houses whose numbers my folks called. So I stopped staying at those houses. So I had been homeless a while. It was around this time that My best friend Mandy was leaving for a vacation for two weeks. She gave me the keys to her garage in Palos hills while she was gone for me to have a place of my own to sleep. I brought all my stuff over, the highlights being my giant cushion, my hammock, my projector,my miniature fridge, my computer and my xbox. I hung a pink sheet in the garage and invited everyone over to the garage everyday. The neighbors called the police regularly, but they only told us to be quite, since I had the key to the garage and claimed residency in the house, even though it was a lie.
During those two weeks I had so much fun. I quit my job at McDonalds, which was bad because I no longer had free food... but my other job covered it all. I couldn’t easily get to work there anyways, unless I slept by my girlfriends house. I had missed several days already and so I simply quit. The bad aspects of my life were that my back was sore from the hammock. I shaved with the hose. I spent way too much money on food and it was awkward to ask friends for showers. I was happy. Then Mandy came home. I had been homeless or about 6 weeks. Mandy’s Guardian Kathy found me in the garage. She was not pleased that I had been obviously living there. I had been very close to Kathy months before, while she still lived in evergreen, and I was very good friends with both her adopted children. Kathy was pissed about me in the garage, but she let it slide, even though the old neighbors claimed I was smoking pot and having large parties in the garage every night. Kathy knew I didn’t smoke pot. All I really had was a three people playing “DeadOrAlive3" on a giant pink screen.
Well there was a guest room in Kathy’s nice big house. So she let me stay. It became my room. I eventually got in touch with my folks after I was all settled. I wanted my bed, which they had! I got it from them pending my apology, and an agreement to stay with them 4 or 5 days a month. I agreed, and got my bed. So since then I have lived with Mandy and Kathy and Lil’Joe most of the time. I visit my folks occasionally, and I still stay with other friends.I quit Ups and got a warehouse job. My long term gf went crazy a month later and refused to leave her house. She hasn’t left it since September. We were on and off all fall, and in November I gave up. I got depressed and started making flash again and posting on the BBS. I spent the whole year out of school. Im all set up to get my dorm at Columbia this year, and the I will finally have a real home of my own again.
