Reno, Nevada is called the 'biggest little city in the world.' It's full of life and chaos. The streets are filled with people and the casinos are filled with more. For me, it was where my mother and I found a safe haven from the streets. Incident after incident had landed us right on the roads of an unfamiliar state with unfamiliar faces.

At the age of 4, it was just me and my mother. For some, 4-year-olds were in a reality of care free days and coloring. Homelessness was our reality. Then, it was us and the people who lived in the homeless shelter. Transferring from place to place, the once strangers became family. A family that didn't leave our hearts after we got on our feet and into a house. The little apartment was our place, it was our home. Yet the times spent there brought memories that I’ll never forget and lessons I would have never learned.

Realizing that everything happens for a reason was one of the toughest battles I faced in my childhood. That is something a child should never have to question; they shouldn’t have to cry and wonder why all of this was happening to them. Yet, there is nothing I am more thankful for. It taught me that sometimes life really feels like it is falling apart and that at any moment, the whole world might implode. Homelessness taught me to enjoy those moments; although I didn’t learn this lesson till later in life. Those moments when you feel like the world you know is crashing down, take a moment to love them. To realize that it may all seem terrible now but it could be worse. Even being homeless isn’t the worst. For a long time, I didn’t realize that. All I could think was, why does this have to happen to me? What have I done to deserve this? That’s when I realized everything truly happens for a reason.

Without knowing that pain and despair, I wouldn’t have found the strength to rise above it all. This lesson of realizing everything happens for a reason had a lot of other lessons that accompanied it. It taught me that I thought not having a home was bad but what about a life not living your dream? It taught me that I had lived this story so that I could tell others who are living the same one that there is hope. It taught me hope. Hope that there is a better tomorrow and it can be brighter if you want it to. Being homeless taught me that a white teddy bear with a velvet heart can change a world; even if it seems simple and cheap to others, it’s a prized possession to another. It taught me that being mature at a young age isn’t all that bad; it makes being an adult a lot less painful. Homelessness taught me that you truly don’t know anyone from a first glance, so why would you base your perspective of them off that?

No lesson was harder to learn than the lesson of judgement from others. It’s hard to describe to people what it was like. To not have a bed to rest your head on at night or a room of your own. It’s hard to describe that those felt normal. It wasn’t until later years that I realized that wasn’t the way life was meant to live. Back then poverty wasn’t even in my vocabulary; it just seemed normal. Normal until I set foot into the kindergarten classroom for the first time. At our age, the looks weren’t as extreme but there were questions asked. Why don’t you have the big box of crayons? Why don’t you have the latest Now CD? From a young age, kids are taught to discriminate and separate; unless you are on the other side of the fence.

How many times have you looked at a homeless man on the street and felt no remorse? Why? You probably think he is lazy, that he put himself there. You probably thought, even for a second, that he was less than you. That’s what people saw when they looked at me and my mother. All they could see was that we were homeless; they couldn’t see our story. Everyone has a story to tell and a life to live. It wasn’t until I’ve been through it that I’ve realized how hard it is. Even at a young age, I watched it eat away at my mother as she tried to get us back on our feet. Not all those homeless people on corners are ‘lazy’ or ‘dumb’; sometimes circumstances lead us in places you can’t control. You also learn there isn’t a face to homelessness. It isn’t always the older man on the corner, although many think this. It’s children and single moms. It’s widows and bachelors. It’s teenagers and friends. Homelessness can affect anyone.

Life has taught me many lessons but my experience of being homeless taught me the most. It taught me all of the above and many more things. It truly taught me true strength. I went from being homeless at the age of 5 to paying for college and having a 3.8 GPA at 20. This isn’t always the case for others; I’ve been lucky with a great support system. Before you judge other homeless people, take a moment to think. Think more about the pain and despair they are feeling and less about how you think they are lazy. Our time shouldn’t be wasted judging through a window but rather judging through the mirror. Everyone has a story and I learned that mine, although tough and tiring, is going to be one lived to it’s fullest. Not because I have had the best circumstances but because I haven’t and that has taught me more than anything else could.