A Homeless Teen's Adventure: What would you do?

Let me start by saying I come from Chicago.

Actually, I was #homeless in Chicago.

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I lost my job, and didn't know where I would be sleeping each night. It was time to turn my #life around, and if I ever wanted change, it would have to be drastic.

So, at 18, I gathered all of my things into one backpack, managed my savings, and hopped on a train to #travel across the country. The trip was a little over 3 days and most of it was through corn fields and oil wells.

Somewhere in South Dakota, taken on my flip phone.

After buying the ticket, with hardly a penny to my name, I ate packets of tuna and cold spaghetti rings out of a can to sustain myself. The conductors and workers became my friends (we still keep in touch), serving me stale coffee in the morning, calling me their coffee angel.

They made sure I had the entire train car to myself, and even allowed me to smoke cigarettes out the window.

My ecstatic, pierced teenage face as I rebelled by smoking on a train.

My trip ended at Union Station in Portland, Oregon. I had some family in Eugene (a hippy, college town about 2 hours away) and even a few friends I met on the internet, so I wasn’t too intimidated.

Still, it was scary starting this new journey.

Mount hood, as seen from the train.

What am I up to now, 3 years later?
I'll save that for another post in introduceyourself.

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Thanks for reading! If you have had similar experiences, just know that life does get better!