How'd I Get Here
I'm writing this from the shelter that I'm staying at. I never thought I'd end up in a shelter but here I am. How did I get here? I had to leave home quickly. Home was with some of my siblings and a couple of my nieces in an apartment in Coney Island. Why'd I have to leave quickly? Well I didn't feel safe there. To be frank I never felt safe there. I'll get more into why eventually. But, for now, long story short my siblings and mother were emotionally abusing me. My mother moved out a while back but comes over from time to time. It came time where I just had to go and a shelter was my best option. They have resources here and are helping me get on my feet. I can't say “back on” them because I've never been fully independent. I've never lived on my own. Though I did practically raise myself for a chunk of my childhood.
It's not so bad here at the shelter. This is my first and hopefully only time in a shelter. I'm just grateful that I have some place indoors and safe to stay. There is a curfew of 11pm. We have to be out of the rooms Monday through Friday from 9am to 4pm. The room I'm in has three beds. So I usually have 2 roommates. Three meals are provided which helps when my food stamps run out. Many of my roommates have reminded me of my toxic family members. So that's not great. But I've also had some nice ones. But they weren't my roommates for more than a few days.
The roommate that I’ve had for the longest is a piece of work. She greatly reminds me of my family members in the worst ways. She does all these sneaky childish things. I suspect she is doing them intentionally. Though she could just be a very inconsiderate person.
If you want to learn more about this toxic roommate I wrote a blog post about it on my new blog. Update: I did write this from the shelter that I was in but wrote the blog post from where I’m staying now. Which, as I’m writing this, is with another toxic family member. I’m desperately trying to move out and get my own place. The process is proving more difficult than I hoped.