'Alex'
(name change for privacy)
I grew up in an unstable and unsafe household, unfortunately at 14 I got kicked out by my mother due to some disagreements. I was very fortunate to have friends that took me in. So, I was couch surfing for a lot of the time, also spent some nights on park benches. At 16 I was accommodated at a crisis accommodation service for 3 months, during this time I struggled with my mental health, leaving me to go in and out of hospital, but I got better. 2 months later I found TINOCA, and since I have been at TINOCA I have achieved so many things such as being named for a state sport team, getting a job and have gotten my life back on track.
Through tough times I found myself turning to sport to cope. I found a sense of passion and community through sport. I found through running I realised that when your mind is telling you to stop, you can keep going. It is all about the perseverance. I am very lucky to be surrounded by a good group of friends, one of my biggest supports is TINOCA, they met me where I was, they didn’t expect much of me, they were always there when I needed help, they are all very nice, never shamed me for my struggles. During this time, I think I learnt a lot about myself, I realised no matter how bad it was, I kept going and I am so proud of myself because I did want to give up, I didn’t, and I am stronger than I think.
Ever since I was accommodated at TINOCA,I would say there a lot of different things in my life I am still adjusting to, one of them being I can go onto my day-to-day life knowing that when I want to go home, I actually have somewhere to go where I am safe, without wondering all day where am I going to go? What am I going to eat? What am I going to do with my life? I now have that stability, I would say I am not living in survival mode. I do still get those feelings that I am going to lose what I have but just knowing that I have means a lot to me. It allows me this insight to my future that I never had before. For my future I want to achieve a lot, one of them is running a marathon. I don’t know why, but it is just something I have always wanted to do. That life I want for myself is a life where it is healthy and stable with good relationships, a good relationship with myself as well.
I think there is a lot of misconceptions about youth homelessness, one of the main ones being that it is a choice, because most stories, it is not a choice and it’s a genuine struggle to be a young kid with those worries of not having a place to go, it is something that no one should have to go though and its more common than we think. I feel like as someone who is going though that myself, I didn’t now it was as common as it is. I knew I was going through that, but I thought I was alone, but it is way more common than we think, and it is affecting a lot of people and most of us don’t deserve it, and it takes a toll on our mental health. From my story I hope people can take that things do get better, it takes time, and you are not always going to have hope that it will not get better, but it does, you just need to give yourself grace and celebrate the small wins because the small wins are actually big wins,
For anyone going through this, I want to you know, you are not alone and there are supports out there for you and things to get better.