Sometimes Hollywood Can Help

I've lived on the streets in Los Angeles for 2 years of my life. Recalling
and at times having nightmares of those days, are still very real and close
in my life. I was 17 years old when I ran away from my mother. Things at home were in a state of disbelief, and I desperately needed attention of my own, so I fled to Hollywood.

As a child you think of Hollywood as this wonderful city where the rich and beautiful devulge their time and money to live in a life of luxury. I learned soon on, that the heart of Hollywood was much more hard, and dirty than I could have ever imagined. I'm not proud of the things I did, but I do acknowledge them as a part of my life, because in all fairness they were. I ate out of a dumpster once, I stole from stores with other friends, (crying the whole way through).

I remember one night, which happened to be the most IMPORTANT NIGHT of my life, I went to a friend of a friend's little apartment. They were in the back doing God know's what, while I sat in front of a telelvision set and began to watch a movie titled "WHERE THE DAY TAKES YOU". Now I don't know if this movie was big or made bucks at the box office, but sitting there, watching this story about teen runaways surviving in the streets of L.A., was like watching my life unfold before my eyes. I never thought Hollywood or a film could open my mind as much as it did. I cried the whole way through, and at the end I realized what I had to do.

I'm safe at home now, 2 years later, and as silly as it sounds, that movie saved my life...as a volunteer now at a runaway shelter for teens, I show that
movie. It's always the same reaction. Hollywood can make a difference.

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