Sky (24)

“I do not live on the streets. I volunteer at p:ear with students that do. I live in NorthWest Portland and share my apartment with my boyfriend. I am a college senior and doing an internship at p:ear to complete my Bachelor’s degree.
I have never been homeless, but have been unemployed and broke enough to have to move in with a parent.
At one point I was living in a shared house with five other people who all moved out unexpectedly, so was forced to move out of the house (my options were to be forced out or pay all 1300$ a month in rent myself while finding new room-mates, so I moved into my dad’s basement.)
I definitely think I could have ended up on the streets several times if I didn’t have such supportive parents, mainly my mother.
(…)
Between age 11 and 23 I was on a lot of different medications, mostly for severe depression but also some anxiety.
At 23 I took a year to study abroad in India and Tanzania in a college program which is where I met my boyfriend. While in India I went off all my anti-depressant medication cold-turkey which was hard, but I felt ready to no longer be numbing myself out with chemicals.
My passion is art and teaching which is what brought me to p:ear. I hope to work with children as an art teacher some day.”