Olivia - My story

Hi everyone, I'd like to share my story.

I was homeless for about two years.
It started when me and two of my friends got kicked out of our flat. We were working minimum wage jobs and had no savings so we couldn't pay for bond on a new place. We moved into our car. It was cramped with three of us in there but we were all good friends so it was sort of fun too. We used to take turns on who got to sleep in the back seat and have the most room. It was luxury! :)

My friend Sheena had some health problems and had to give up work, and then Tim left his job so we tried to live off my earnings. It was hard. So was finding places to wash and safe places to park the car at night.

Eventually it got so hard that we turned to prostitution for some extra money. We met a girl called Mariah who was being pimped so we told her to leave them and come with us. Next thing, her old pimps are threatening to kill us so the four of us skip town.

It gets kind of complicated after we got to Wellington, so to cut a long story short, we all split up. It was horrible because not only was I on the streets in a strange place, I had lost my three best friends. I thought about killing myself a lot. Especially on really cold nights when I was trying to sleep on cold concrete with only my clothes for warmth.

I was working the streets as a prostitute so at least I had money for food and smokes. Sometimes I got to stay in backpackers but it was hard because I didn't have ID so most places wouldn't let me stay.

At the local youth centre I met up with lots of teenagers who became my friends. Some of them were homeless too. After a while I was able to buy a van to stay in. Some nights I had up to 7 teenagers sleeping in my van because they had no where else to go. If I had a good night at work I'd buy everyone McDonalds for breakfast or dinner.

Then I got into drinking. I drunk every day for 3 months. I lost my van, along with most of my belongings, and ended up back on the streets with nothing but a bag of clothes. I didn't care though - I just got drunk. It was easier to stand the cold if I was drunk. I slept in an abandoned petrol station sometimes. Sometimes in the stairways of parking buildings where at least there was no wind.

Then I met this guy named Sean. About a week after I met him I got really sick. I was living in an abandoned car at the time. I was so sick I didn't move for 3 days, not even to go to the bathroom. I didn't eat and could only take tiny sips of water. When I was well enough to move Sean took me back to his place to stay, and basically I've been with him since. I quit drinking and fell in love with Sean fast. I remember saying to him not long after we met "You know, I could spend the rest of my life with you, and just be happy." It was a big thing for me because I hadn't been truly happy in a long time.

We now have our own flat and I'm nearly 4 months pregnant.I'm on the benefit. I worry about the future but right now, I'm doing ok.

Hello Olivia .. Welcome to the homeless forums.

That's quite a story you've told us there, and it seems to me that you have told it like it is, or should I say as it was ? I hope that this new chapter in your life works out for you and that you continue to contribute here on the forums as you have so much to offer.

Good luck for the future, and thanks for that honesty in your posting, I know how difficult it is to write summary of the events that happen in our lives.

hi olivia..your story proves once again ..if you don't give up on yourself and life...things do get better....sounds like sean was your knight in shining armour....
i wish you and sean the best...and of course your baby... how sweet
cheers

Hi Olivia, thanks for sharing your story.. that's a lot of life to have lived already. I hope things continue to get better for you and I wish you and Sean every happiness.

I look forward to seeing you post in other sections of the forums if you have time as you have a lot to offer here.

Hi, Olivia welcome to the forums ^^ that is quite a story. I am happy to hear things worked out well and sean sounds like a wonderful guy. i wish you all the best with your baby.

- Joel

Welcome to the forums Olivia :)

Konstantin

Hi Olivia,

Welcome to the forum and thanks very much for your post. I think your story is pretty amazing, to have experienced all of that and so young, when I looked at your profile I saw you're 19 :eek: many people much older than you may not have made it through to the other side. And to then have the strength to build your life up to what you have today, that's quite incredible. Congrats on your efforts to stay alive and improve your life, obviously the good things that are happening to you now are all your own doing. I'm glad to see you're doing ok at the moment.

Sounds like Sean is an awesome guy too, found a keeper there :) and congratulations on your pregnancy. I can understand why you'd be worried about the future, you know much better than most what a thin line there is between having a house and living in car. I guess that it may help that you've got Sean there now, somebody who obviously isn't going to leave if things do get hard, and you've got benefits that may be more reliable than a job. And you're also obviously an incredibly strong young women who has experienced more than most would in a lifetime, and you must have more strength than most to have made it through and be in your current situation.

Again, thanks tons for sharing your story with us Olivia, and I too hope you post more in the forums if you can find time, it sounds like you'd have alot to offer us as a member.

Take care,
Sk8r girl.

Thanks everyone! I'll deffinately try to post more around here. I'm trying to work on a novel about street kids and I'm hoping I can gather a few ideas around here.
Everyone here sounds really cool and I'd really like to get involved with the forum. :)

olivia...what can i say,after reading part of your life...
can only say you are a women with a big (W)!

I wish you and your family the very best! lurdes

Well, I'm four months pregnant today! I can't wait to get my next scan and then me and Sean can (hopefully) find out if it's a boy or girl.
I'm pretty worried about money and security. I know how easy it is to suddenly lose your home and have nowhere to go, and me and Sean don't even have a car cos neither of us have a liscence. Seans gonna have a go at getting his learners soon though and then we want to buy a van. We wont be able to use it much i guess because of the risk of getting pulled over by the cops and fined for Sean not having the right liscence. But I think you can get your resticted liscence after having your learners for six months, and once Sean has that he'll be allowed to drive me and baby around because we're his 'dependants' or something like that.
I don't know what I'd do without him.
I'm thinking of telling my story to this magazine that I buy every week. I dunno if they'd use it but I like the idea of spreading the word about homelessness.

Hi Olivia,

That's great about your baby, I hope everything continues to go well there. I can undersand where you're coming from about being worried for your future, you know how hard it can get, and especially with a baby due you'd be looking for some security in your basic needs like housing and transport. I guess it's just about making changes so you don't end up in the situation you've been in during the past, I understand Sean is committed to standing by you and you're on welfare now, so that may be a change from before you were homeless previously. I know you can't know for sure that your current house will stay your home, or if you're going to have a car, but you can do good things for yourself and your family and know that you've taken every step you could to have a happy future. And I'm sure you're doing that. I don't really know what to say, just that for me I know that I'm doing good things in my life, and that I've made changes, that things are really different now to when I was on the streets, and I'm never going back there. So I'm not concerned, myself, because I just know that good things are happening for me now and that things have changed. But that's just me.

I'd be very very careful about selling your story. Of course there are alot of great journalists out there and promoting the issues of homlessness is important, but I also know that there are many journalists who will not hesitate to take advantage of young people, no matter how vunerable you are, they'll screw you over. That's from my own experience, I was on "a current affair" with channel 9 in Oz when I was homeless, and they lied and manipulated my friends and I, street kids, to get their 10min story. They told us the story was about how hard it is for young people on the streets and how the government assistance is inadequate, and we did interviews and showed them around (already known) squats the whole night. When the story aired on TV it was about how kids have good homes but they run away to become wasted youth who then rip off the welfare system. Totally lied to us and manipulated us, streets kids, how low can you get? But I have had contact with (only a few) good journalists who actually have my best interests at heart, not their interests of making money. So I'm all for promoting the issues of homelessness and I love telling my story, but I think it would take alot of persuasion for me to do an interview with a mainstream media journalist in the future.

Just be careful, make sure it's not something that would put your or your baby or Sean at risk, and don't go on just the journalists word that they're going to do the right thing. Also look at which media company they're from and their track record of reporting and consider remaining anonymous (if you haven't considered that already). Make sure it's going to be a good thing not something that would have a negative effect, that it's worth it. But I think you have an awesome story to tell and the world should hear it.

take care,
sk8r girl.

i'd deffinately be annonymous. I've only considered telling my story to one magazine that i've been buying for years that only publishes real-life stories - as in no celebrities or any of that crap. They have it in Australia too. Its called Thats Life.
I'm still just thinking about it though. I haven't made any decisions

I know That's Life, thought it might be that one, that's probably my favourite magazine, I don't go a week without picking up a that's life or take 5, I really love all the stories and the fact there's no celbrities featured, just average people. I know I've said this before, but I think you need to be really careful Olivia, many magazines will portray themselves to be "real" and caring towards the community, if you take them at face value you're bound to be screwed over. You really need to have your wits about you when dealing with the media relating your personal experiences, many magazines appear to be just about "telling it like it is" but I think that although That's Life portray themselves as this they're not the best magazine for being truthful. Maybe ask them questions, like would you be able to view the story before it's published and have the final say about the go-ahead? Most companies wouldn't do that, but they should if they have your interests at heart or are going to tell it like it is, if they refuse they're probably going to tell your story how they want to.

The That's Life from last week that I bought included the following stories:
- Headline stated "55 people saved my life" - actual story was that person had just had a blood transfusion, extremely exagerrated.
- Headline stated "My son the midwife" - actual story was that a pregnant mother started to give birth a week early, so at the time the baby sitter for her 2yr old wasn't available, so he came to the delivery room with his mum and dad, story beat up over nothing.
- Headline stated (can't remember this one exactly, something like) "I locked up my dad so he couldn't hurt other girls" - person lived with sexual abuse from her father her whole life and only pressed prosecution when her father was 72yrs old, which is great, but by the time he got put in jail he'd spent his whole life being a peadophile and was probably at the point of being so old and frail now it was difficult in the future anyway.

I have noticed that That's Life has over the last year has increasingly exagerrated stories presumably to get more readership. Out of all the commercial magazines they would the one I'd go to, but because their business is taking somebody's story and sensationalising it so more people read that mag over others, I know that would be their interest and my welfare wouldn't be at the top of their list, but as they're selling their mag because of your experiences, you should be a priority.

I really don't want to be telling you what to do, I know you haven't made any decisions, and obviously would discuss it with Sean, I really wouldn't want to be interfering in a very personal decision for you, and don't think I'd say much more on the matter. Whatever I say, of course it's totally up to you, and obviously nobody here is going to have any positive or negative effect from action you take, so we can't judge or tell you what to do, and I definitely wouldn't do that. It just would have been really helpful for someone to tell me about the media process before I became invovled with a commercial media company. I would very much like to read your story in a mag sometime, as I said I think it's an incredible journey you've had and you've overcome so much, the world would benefit from reading about your experiences. Just that you need to benefit too, and any commercial media at all needs to be approached with absolute caution. So this is just my opinion and experiences, it's totally up to you what you do, and thanks very much for your post and continued involvement in the forums.

Take care,
Sk8r girl.

Thanks Sk8er girl, I like the idea of asking questions like whether I can read it first before it's published. I'll deffinately keep that in mind.
That's Life's my fave magazine too, I never miss a week (not even when I was homeless!)
I still haven't made a decision, I'm too busy looking for a baby-proof flat, and we've just got a new kitten that needs to be watched so he doesn't poop everywhere :)

:D wow a kitten! Makes me smile just thinking of it. That'd keep you busy for sure. I hope you have luck finding a new place, in Australia finding a good rental place is like a needle in a haystack at the moment! Thanks for the update, hope you do have time for the article in the future, and good luck with renting :)

sk8r girl.

hi olivia keep smiling and live a gd life :) im sad sometimes just keep happy

Hi everyone, haven't been online in AGES. (We moved to a new flat and only recently got the internet set up)

Well, on the 31st of July Sean and I welcomed our son Toby-Jordan into the world. He's now just over 9 weeks old, and he's absolutely perfect.
Everything's been going well. Sean got his license and we bought a car. We're fixing it up a bit, then we're going to sell it and buy a van.

Hmm, not much else to say really. All my time's taken up looking after buby at the moment, but that's fine with me :)

~Livvy

HEY !!

Congratulations are well in order Olivia .. Going by your recent postings it would seem that your life is being fast tracked to happiness .. :) .. Good for you. Please continue to share some of that new found happiness with our forum members if you can find the time in your busybusy life.

yes congrats olivia cheers peter.:)

That's wonderful Olivia, congratulations to all three of you!

http://brain.hastypastry.net/forums/images/graphics_grabbag/sparkle.gif

Enjoy this wonderful time, you've earned it! http://brain.hastypastry.net/forums/images/graphics_grabbag/smallheart.gif

Congratulations Olivia!!
Thats wonderful sounds like things are going really well for you both.
Enjoy every moment they grow sooooo quick I had a baby also early in the year..wow amazing experience to think now you have this little person to grow and teach and love.

Goodluck.

x

Congratulations!! :D

Konstantin.

congrats olivia....a son...how glorious and a fine strong name you chose for him
enjoy every precious moment ...cos before you know it ...your beautiful baby boy will transform into a tall smelly hairy-man that eats everything in sight lol...just kidding ...i have two sons whom i am very proud of as they are now fine men ....my eldest is 34 this month...sons are a lot easier than daughters...girls are so complex...
cheers and enjoy

congrats thats brillant news. :):):):):):):)

Ok, well, I don't need a job cos I'm a stay at home mum and my partner works full time, and we also get some assistance from the government, but...

I don't think I'll ever get a job, because after working as a prostitute and getting up to 400 dollars a night, I don't think I could manage working 9 - 5, five days a week for the same amount of money.

If I ever did get a job, I think it would probably be in a 'massage parlour'. I don't want to go back to the streets again.

Anyway, I don't know why I'm even posting this, because I'm not planning on getting a job anywhere in the near future. I guess it's just been something on my mind.

Regular Joe Citizen jobs are sometimes worth doing. I don't work 9-5 today but have held regular Joe Citizen jobs in the past and made my way through lean times via those type of jobs.

For me I worked those jobs to put a track record in place to get better jobs in the future.

My tip is work a few shitty jobs and get a track record with an employer who can recommend you to future employers.

That is if you want to move into a mainstream workplace. It comes down to the workplace you want.

I want to be a writer. I'm still working on my novel about a group of street kids. I've been working on it for about a year and it's no where near finished, but I'm determined to stick with it until it's done.

hey Olivia..
Its hard to follow your dreams but stick with the writing, theres a hell of a lot stories need to be told..
I know the decrease in finances doing a 9-5 wage slave is not the most appealling but it gets you out of the Gaff and inter reacting with a whole new strata of people.. sometimes you have to put the head down for the best of reasons and you would still be able to write away also with a whole bunch of new experiences..
The parlour work might keep you from your writing more maybe?

your probably experiencing some boredom with your life at the mo, and its brilliant i suppose to the previous chaos..

I dont really have the answers either i suppose, but the forums are a good place to vent!!!

so vent away missy!
i will get the mugs!
:)

If you'd just like to earn a bit of pocket money, have you looked into the possibility of doing some modelling for artists? The pay isn't great, but it might suit you better than a 9 to 5 job. It depends how much money you need to keep going, and how much time you're prepared to spend sitting. Generally, artists don't want perfect figures, they prefer a bit of weight if possible because it's more of a challenge to draw or paint.

The pay is much better for photographic models, but of course, they usually want great looks and figure - and even if you have those, you need an expensive portfolio of photos, and hair and makeup have to be perfect and so on...and it's very competitive.

Just an idea, I don't know whether it's any help...

I've thought about doing modelling for artists. I think it would be fun, and I'm fairly comfortable with my body.
Maybe when my son's a bit older, I'll look into it. Thanks Rose.

Congrats Olivia well done. All the best for 2009.