CODEE

PHOTO BY RANDY BACON

CODEE’S STORY

I am twenty years old. I was raised by my grandparents, my mother didn’t wanna grow up, so she lost custody of me. She forged my dad's signature so he lost custody of me because he didn’t know. I got taken away from her, went through foster care, then my grandmother adopted me when I was eight. I got kicked out at sixteen, and a month before that, my father passed away. I hid out in my grandma’s cellar before she found out and ended up bringing me food. I quit school because it was too easy and I already did all my work. I got tired of couch hopping so I decided to travel around when I was eighteen whenever I could do it. My grandma took me to the first town in Texas so that the cops wouldn’t bring me back to her doorstep cause I had a bunch of runaway issues whenever I was younger. From where she took me to, I ended up hitchhiking to another town, stayed in the area for a little bit, then traveled to a different town and stayed there for a little bit. I ended up going to Oklahoma to do culinary arts and get my diploma, which I got. I completed there, moved around a bunch again, and then I took a train, like snuck onto an Amtrak and it took me here. Whenever I came here, I’ve realized this town has a big homeless population. And my main concern right now is trying to get money, to get my dog food.

The hardest thing about being homeless is getting what you need. Because I’m a girl it’s hard to get those personal feminine stuff. People give you dirty looks because they don’t really understand, and it’s hard to make money because you need a place to live, to get a job because they want an address. You don't have an address, like a house, you can’t really get a job because they want you to dress nice and be clean and that’s hard to do if you have no way to do that. What I do like is that I can go wherever I want. No boundaries. I can see what I want to see without having the money to do so. Like one of my goals is to see Niagara Falls. A lot of people save up money to do that. I can just hitch and walk my way up there just to see it, without spending any money. I want to sneak into Canada, to see it from their side. I heard it looks better.

I haven’t seen my mom since around the time my dad died. She sent me a letter while living across the alley. She's had drug problems and she’s back at the ‘I got Jesus, I’m saved” like she does every time she gets out, before going down the wrong path again. She’s my birth giver. I have a mom, and that’s my grandmother who was there that raised me. My actual mother, ya know, I love her and all but she wasn’t there. She’s helped me whenever I’ve need it but, she hasn’t been there.

My advice to people is to be as nice as you can. The nicest people I’ve met are those that live on the streets because they have no place to judge. Because if they judge they might as well be a hypocrite. Some of us, we’ve lost all hope. I don’t really have hope. I just live day by day, hope I don’t die tomorrow or whatever cause anything can happen. Loves’ a big thing, but it’s a hard thing to talk about.

My dream is to travel, pretty much. See everything I can. I wanna go to Europe eventually. I don't have a passport or anything but I could probably sneak on a boat or something. This spring I’m going to the Grand Canyon. I made a joke to my mom, who recently got out of jail, I told her that if she hears about me on the news, it’s probably cause I tripped over nothing and fell in. I’m a klutz.