Tup, age 17, Philadelphia, PA, September 8, 2002 Robin Bowman

Tup, age 17 Leaving home gave me freedom, and I also had to grow up a lot faster… I’ve matured in shit-loads. I mean, I’m a lot more responsible, even though I’m on the streets and people think I’m not responsible because I don’t have a home. I can’t have a home ‘cuz I’m seventeen, I can’t sign for it. I can’t have rent because I can’t sign for it. I can’t have a job ‘cuz I’m seventeen, I don’t have an ID and I can’t get an ID without a home... I assume that my parents know I’m homeless. But I haven’t talked to them. I just left. I think they do care, but they didn’t change anything in their lives, they just went on doing what they were doing’ I stopped using drugs on November 7, 2000. I was sick of getting busted, and overdosing, and people just not caring. People say, like, “Whatever, I don’t give a shit about this guy.” One day some guy gave me some pills, I don’t know what pills they were. I took them and in some way it gave me a bad reaction. I don’t remember forty-eight hours. People that I was using with, they were like, “Oh yeah, you passed out. You didn’t do anything for forty-eight hours. You weren’t awake at all. You wouldn’t respond to anything.” Why don’t they do something? …I made a choice then to quit. I haven’t had any drugs since. I feel very good. I’m proud of myself for it. Just talking with people makes me happy. I mean, if I ask someone for spare change and they take the time just two minutes, even if they don’t give me change, just like, “Hey, how’re you doing, taking care of yourself?” “Are you doing good, is there anything other than money that I might be able to give you that will help you out?” I just like talking to people, and giving what I can and them giving what they can. It’s never very much either way, but I mean, that’s how the world works. My dream is running a small organic farm that’s completely sustainable and off-grid electrically and plumbing-wise and all that good stuff. Realistically, I can probably get that.