|
When You've Had Enough of Life... There comes a certain point when you just know you’ve had enough of life. You just fucking want to quit getting up in the morning because every day it's the same thing and it doesn't get better, only worse. Once you start high school you become completely convinced that you know everything, even though you couldn’t survive on your own for more than ten minutes. And everything your parents say is absolute shit, though you don’t know why it is. Funny how people can survive for forty years and not know anything, isn't it? As far as I see it, there are two kinds of runaways, the stupid lucky kids who just think their lives suck, and the people who run for a reason. I had no reason to run, I just did it. Somehow I didn’t want to be found. Statistically, 26% of kids out there are only on their own for 1-3 days. Yet another equal percent of kids are gone for more than six months. I ran for the first time when I was ten years old and was only gone for about 24 hours. The second time I ran, I got to the next city and was gone for three days when the cops caught me. Between age 10 and age 18 (I am 19 now) I ran twelve times. The longest I was ever on my own was three months. I never turned tricks and never did hard drugs, but I did drink and smoke lots of pot. I also stole. I found lots of people on the street who were willing to put me up for awhile because I was a smart kid. Of course, I was dumb to run away, but I was good at taking electronic stuff apart again and making it work, TVs, phones, car alarms. Plus, I was skinny and quiet enough to go through the little rectangle basement windows that a lot of the older buildings and houses have. After some time working with this guy who stole nice cars, I got pretty good at surviving and finally took off on my own, picking locks to let myself into anywhere I wanted to go. The best time I ever had was this weekend I heard this family was leaving town and I went into thier house through a window open on the second floor, ate most of thier food and pretty much just watched tv all day. But you can't stay places like that forever. Time has a way of beating the hell out of a person, and after awhile, the green army-issue bag I had carried with me all along finally broke in the middle of the street. I had made it from Detroit to Washington D.C. and at that time I only had 45 cents and a pack of ciggarettes on me. It was raining like hell and the bag had broke so bad I couldn’t even carry my shit, so I called up an old friend in the area that I used to smoke pot with. The house where I thought he was staying said he wasn’t there anymore, but they would give me a number where I could call him. They asked me where I was and I told them, and they said somebody would come meet me. I never expected that somebody would be the cops. Besides, I was really tired... so I went behind the building under an overhang and tried to get some sleep. I was really tired and I think I was probably sick, but I had been sick so long I didn't even notice it. I woke up in the hospital on an iv. After that, I finally went home. I live on my own now. That was the last time I ever ran away. If you run, be sure you understand what you’re getting yourself into. Unless you can defend yourself really well, you will get beat up. I had a six inch stilleto I stole from a guy who was passed out by a bar and it saved my life, but even a knife is no goof if you don't know how to use it. If you aren't good at jacking shit, you'll have to busk for money or beg. Most likely, if you can't steal you'll end up a whore or a burn-out. And unless you can sleep on a fire escape in 30 degree weather and eat shit out of a dumpster, you will probably end up dead. -SK. Detroit, Phoenix, Los Angeles, New York and Cleveland
|