“My sisters and I were going hungry. We lived off of ramen noodles for weeks at a time; we didn’t know what my mom did with the EBT money for food. We became fatigued and skinny. During those weeks of living in paranoia, my mom acted like life was dandy, still buying liquor and marijuana just for her boyfriend and herself. I had to put a stop to worrying about my life. I came to a conclusion that the only way that I could be happy and stable is to move on when we got evicted for the 5th time in 3 years. At age 13, I wanted to see what life could give me, even if it meant living like a nomad and bouncing to house to house. … I moved out.”
