Homeless

I’ve got two Hungarian ‘kids’ sleeping on my couches. A boy and a girl. It’s funny how you start seeing everybody that’s a bit younger than yourself as kids. These two are around the 20s and they’ve just become homeless.

That’s not the smelly, begging for money kind of homeless; nor the drug fucked sleeping in your own vomit kind of homeless either. It’s the kind where even though you’re working you can’t pay the rent and your land lord kicks you out – then you end up squatting in some cellar (with no running water and no electricity) to be chased out in the middle of the night by a man and his madly barking dog kind of homeless.

I’ve never had it that bad. I’ve never had to squat in a place with no running water and no beds before. I’ve had it in a bad way, but I’ve never let it get that bad. Maybe it’s because I’m more careful, or maybe I just have more of a safety net (that I call in earlier).

The quote that comes up in me is, ‘an intelligent man can get himself out of problems that a wise man would never have let himself get into.’

Or is that just being arrogant?

Maybe it’s because I’m a little older. When I was in my twenties I was safely tucked away in university. I had food every day, I had a roof over my head and I had classes to attend. I still made some big mistakes (the debts of which I’m in the process of paying off now), but I never really had a chance to fuck it up badly.

Of course that isn’t exactly true, as the overdose of one of my fellow students testifies to (Heroine, for the interested ones among you), but still the scope for mistakes was relatively limited.

These guys left their country to try and find work here. It’s pretty admirable. I don’t think they’ll be able to stick around much longer, though. Not having a home (or a shower, or clothes) makes life a bit of a challenge. Possibly more of a challenge than it really needs to be.

If you’ve got people back home that are willing to pick you up, get you going again and give you a fresh start, maybe you should take it.

But then, maybe I’m not as brave (reckless?) as them.