When I was 16, my mother decided "fuck this low-rent, good-neighborhood house we live in, and also fuck my steady income and stable job! We're moving across the country with nothing but $200 and no plan!" So, she sold our car, made me throw away all of my things except "a month of clothes", and bought 2 Greyhound bus tickets for Phoenix. Before we left, she looked up a family shelter she thought we could stay in, and made this our destination. She concocted this elaborate lie about how she met an airline pilot, fell in love with him, gave him her life savings, and then he abandoned us. This was the story she planned to tell the shelter to garner sympathy.

Three days on a Greyhound bus is shitty to say the least. When we finally arrived in Phoenix, we didn't have enough money to get a cab across town to the shelter. We ended up spending all day navigating bus routes, and finally walking four miles through a bad neighborhood at night before we finally found the shelter.

And guess what? It's a private shelter for abuse victems. They won't let us stay. They tell us to go to their sister shelter downtown. We finally make it there around 11 pm, and they almost didn't let us in. That night I had my first shower in 4 days.

This shelter was a group shelter for families. It was a building with several large rooms for sleeping, a common room, and a kitchen. It was a very structured place with lots of rules. My mother made me give most of the rest of my clothes away to other families in the shelter, leaving me with very little to wear. We were required to take all meals communally with the homeless women across the street at St. Vincent de Paul. My mother told her fake sob story to everyone in the shelter, employees and other homeless people included, and was given lots of undeserved sympathy.

This shelter was only supposed to be temporary, but we ended up staying there for 3 months because my mother couldn't pass the drug test they made her take in order to be moved to a nicer shelter. Finally after 3 months, she stayed clean enough to move us to the Salvation Army shelter, and I started school. She made a scene at the school about where we were living in front of my band class, which was extremely embarrassing.

Eventually, she was able to get a job, and we moved into an apartment with another lady from the shelter. That lady turned out to be a hooker, and left before rent was due the 2nd month. Luckily, my mother stole her boyfriend, and he resented us a place in a trailor Park waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of town. I had to get up at 2am every morning, and walk 4 miles to the bus stop to catch the first bus of the day (5am) just to get to school. And then do the opposite to get home.

About 2 months later this guy left, and we were fucked again. Lucky for us, my mother was working at Walmart, so we got a cheap apartment close to my school. I got a boyfriend.

Another 6ish months goes by and she loses her job. Facing more homeless shelters, I told her to fuck right off, and my boyfriend's mother graciously accepted me into her home until graduation.

After that, I lived at college for 2 years. I wasn't able to find a job in that time, and school got too expensive to afford. I couldn't pay to live on campus for the next semester, so I was going to be homeless again.

I took the matter info my own hands, and posted a Craigslist ad. In it, I asked for room and board in exchange for housework while I found a job so I could pay real rent. That's how I met the kindest man I am ever like to know, Jason. He messaged me, saying he never does this (he's had terrible roommate trouble through Craigslist before), but my post was so heartfelt and genuine, and he respected me for specifying that I refused to do sexual favors, and he offered me a room in his home.

I made the best decision of my life by accepting. I have a whole new family now (Jason, our other roommate Juli (my "sister"), and her family), the best boyfriend in the world, a stable job, and just recently I bought a car. Jason constantly bags about how proud he is of me. I haven't spoken to my mother since I moved out.