Basically I started hanging out with street kids, gutter punks when I was sixteen. I would come to the city on the weekends. I guess I leaned a different lifestyle because it was more of a community and people took care of each other and i just liked the way people looked out for one another. It was more like a family.
I'm usually found between New York and New Orleans. The last year since July, I've been on the road. I was traveling with a guy, but unfortunately he's incarcerated and I just found out I'm pregnant with his child. So I decided to come to Tompkins one last time because I'm about to start adult life with a baby and go to school and get a degree and I guess kinda leave this lifestyle behind. It's like my one last hurrah.
I want to get clean and so I can't really associate with people that use anymore. I get disability right now. Anxiety and depression.
I feel like I've been very lucky to experience a very different way of living outside of societies norm. It's cool when you have the freedom to do what you want, when you want. But structure can also be important. I always have freedom cause I'm a free spirit. I'm gonna miss it but I'm ready to move on. These kids don't really have that high of a life expectancy. I call all my gutter punk friends my lost boys. Most of my friends are guys. I love them and usually it's like I stay in New Orleans and I see them come through town every year and I look forward to seeing different people and stuff like that but in a way as free as I think they are, sometimes they're kinda trapped in that lifestyle. I dunno it's like I've been there, done that and I'm looking to try something else.
Andie
