I’m Not Your Stereotype

Sixteen years old.

One backpack.

Sixteen with a backpack, silence in the hall,

One door closed behind me, barely standing tall.

A blanket and some clothes—everything I owned,

A kid without a childhood, facing life alone.

I walked away so they could keep their peace,

Traded shelter for family relief.

Found a patch of earth and called it somewhere safe,

While the world kept turning like I’d been erased.

Tell me what you’d do at sixteen,

With nowhere left to turn,

When the only home you’ve ever known

Is a bridge you’re forced to burn?

You don’t know what it’s like to be invisible in the light,

Praying cold won’t find you in the middle of the night.

You see a stranger passing by,

But don’t know what it takes to stay alive.

We’re more than our worst moments,

More than stories you’ve been told.

You can’t measure someone’s worth

By the shelter they don’t hold.

Before you judge the life we’re living,

Before you turn away,

Remember we’re still human—

Homelessness isn’t always a choice we get to make.

Rain leaks through the canvas, cold cuts through the seams,

Searching for shelter in a world that sells you dreams.

Will tomorrow bring a meal, or another night of dread?

You hide the things you feel and keep your fears unsaid.

People see a dirty coat and quickly look away,

Call you lazy, say you haven’t earned the right to stay.

You don’t know what it’s like to be invisible in the light,

Praying cold won’t find you in the middle of the night.

We’re more than our worst moments,

More than stories you’ve been told.

Remember we’re still human—

Homelessness isn’t always a choice we get to make.

No, we’re not all the same; I won’t pretend we are.

Some fight addiction, some have fallen hard.

Some were broken by the system, some run from their past.

Judge the bottle or the sign, but don’t assume you know the facts.

I’m not asking you to save us or agree.

See the human you pass on the street.

I remember being younger,

With the whole world left to face,

Sleeping underneath a canvas,

Trying to find a safer place.

Behind each face you’re passing

Is a life you never knew.

We’re somebody’s son or daughter.

We were children once, like you.

You don’t know my story!

You don’t know what I survived!

You don’t know what broke me!

You don’t know what kept me alive!

You see where I am standing—

But you don’t know why!!

Before you call me worthless,

Look me in the eyes!

I’M STILL HUMAN! I’M STILL HERE!

I’M NOT A LABEL! I’M NOT YOUR FEAR!

You see a stranger passing by, but there’s more than meets the eye,

Before you judge the life we’re living,

Before you turn away,

Remember we’re still human—

Homelessness isn’t always a choice we get to make.

Sixteen with a backpack,

A blanket and some clothes.

You saw a homeless man—

But I was human all the same.