Those Who Wander: America's Lost Street Kids

by Vivian Ho

Stripped of societal niceties and general expectations of decent human behavior, this mentality is our survival instincts at their basest. Retrospection is a luxury. Compassion is a privilege. And remorse, the ability to feel guilt, to take responsibility for your misdeeds? A suicide mission, a death wish, quicksand in the fight to survive.

Not all wanderers are lost, but they are all searching for something. In the end, I realized that all so many of us are searching for, especially those who have been forced to wander for so long, is our proverbial cabin in Oregon. A place of our own. A place where we are safe. A place where we can be, where we can rest. A place that no one can take.