Earlier today, while myself and the boys watched as students got on motorcycles with their bags, obviously travelling to go be with their family for the holidays, one of the boys had made a joke about how another of our friend probably ran away from home because he hasn't traveled back home for the holidays in more than three years now.
It was a funny joke that made us all laugh but as usual, instead of just leaving it at that, I found myself asking myself if anything could have ever made me run away from home when I was a lot younger. And without even wasting so much time thinking about it, my response to that was no and it was for one particular reason.
I know that when it comes to running away from home, especially at a young age, there are a lot of reasons why it is a bad idea, but one particular reason I will be talking aboiy is because I've seen the way someone who runs away from home live their lives, especially when they left with no plans and no money.
Back in the day, my siblings and I used to have this friend (I've forgotten his name) who at the time I didn't really think of him as homeless, all I knew was that he just showed up one day, we all became friends and he just never left until he did.
This dude had no place to stay and no food to eat. What I and my siblings would do was that whenever my parents gave us food to eat, we would sneak some of it outside to go give to this guy and after that we all would go play. None of us really bothered about where he was sleeping at the time because like I said, I never really saw him as someone who didn't have a home, he was just there.
Luckily for him, he got a job at a bar right next to my house and the lady who was the owner of the bar was kind enough to let him sleep there for as long as he wanted, and that was when I started to really realize that this dude had no plans, he was just living, facing every day as it came.
One day he had gotten up and left, I really don't remember why but thinking about his story and seeing how he lived life with no certainty for anything, not even food or a place to sleep, is surely not something I think I would be able to survive if I had done it.
And that is why whenever I hear people success story of how they ran away from home, slept in the street until they made it, I kinda know how difficult it was because these people don't really go into details, so they make it sound so easy to do that I think it probably motivates others to give it a try.. But trust me when I say it's not, because I saw that life from my friend's perspective and it's not a life anyone would want for themselves.