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Comment by buro9 | Hacker News Reader

I'd made myself homeless to move on from a place I didn't want to be.

I didn't really see the point in staying in a new place I didn't want to be (sitting on a street).

I chose to walk cities, talk to people, hitchhike around the UK, and generally see if I could find a life and place I did want.

It also means I avoided getting into a rhythm of hostels, soup kitchens, and charity.

I know I was homeless and sleeping rough, but at the time I didn't view it like that. At the time I just viewed myself as a nomad, wandering around with a backpack containing some library books for company.

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What was your mindset like during that time period? It sounds almost adventurous, the way you wrote your post.

I acted like it was an adventure because it was the only way to deal with what I was doing. I left home, to sleep on the street, without any money or possessions, until such a time (for as far as I could see into the future) that I could get my life to a better place.

If I hadn't walked around a little in make-believe and "Scout on a quest" type mode, well... maybe I wouldn't be here.

During the darkest days on the street I thought I wouldn't live to be 20. It still haunts a little today: perhaps I should have been dead (many times over)?

By pretending it was an adventure then, and revising my personal history of it now to sound more adventurous (and less dull, traipsing on my own around cities), helps me to survive now.

Well I'm glad you're still here. Thanks for sharing.

What and how much did you eat a day?

Varied greatly, from Pizza Hut all you can eat buffets, through to toast provided by students who let me crash.

For a long time I used Complan and other "off your food" alternatives as supplements to a bad diet - http://www.complan.com/nutritional-info.aspx . Very much like Soylent is doing today, they provided a simple way to get everything you might need. They say to only have one or two per day, I used to consume 2-3 with milk and also add pasta to the mix (I had a camping stove and pasta was my most reliable simple meal).

It varied greatly though, I was homeless for almost two and half years. Diet was something I got wrong a lot before I got it mostly right. I was much healthier when I was sleeping rough than I was when I was living in damp social housing on a diet of whatever my mother could deep fry.

Any chance you'd be interested in writing up in more detail what your experiences were like? Or maybe you did so already?

Seconded. If you do please ping me (email on profile page).

I'm not sure I can write it up.

I was someone back then that I didn't like, I'm glad I moved on but if I did a comprehensive job of putting it in words I'd have to re-live that time again, and who I was. Hate to go all Bladerunner, but I've seen things, done things, that I no longer want the memory of. Putting it into words would give it life again.

You're most likely familiar with Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London" and "The Road to Wigan Pier", two of the finest books ever written.

The first is his "vivid and moving account of life below poverty line", first in Paris, when he, after resigning being a servant of the Empire as a police officer in Burma, had to resort to low-wage, hard, menial 17-hour works in Paris restaurants, and later when he lived as a "tramp" in London, going from spike to spike, meeting others like him.

I don't know if you'd "enjoy" these books though... But they are unrivaled in their shrewdness and, well, it is Orwell and he can write better than anyone.

"Putting it into words would give it life again."

I can understand that.

How about practical advice to those who find themselves in the same situation? Dictate into a sound recorder to minimise the engagement with the memories?

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