I thought it would be easy to write a story about going from living on the streets to being free of the streets. I’ve been labeled as a “success story”, but I’m not totally sure that I am. I have a full-time job, my own apartment, and many more material goods than I did a year ago. But I’m not free of the streets. I’ve worked at my job for six months now, and I still don’t feel like I fit in. We had an incident at work a few weeks ago where some money and steaks were stolen, and fingers automatically pointed at me because of my background. I find whenever I have problems at work, I go to a popular hangout down town where I am accepted. I realize though, that I have come a long way since this time last year.
I worked long and hard to get just this far, and in some aspects I have come a long way. My relationship with my mother is 100% better. I feel better, and I’m finally getting a lot of the things out of life that I wanted.
I’m not completely away from the streets yet, but I’ve made a start, and everything in life has to have a start.
-Anonymous, 1989