I Was Turning Into a Human After Feeling Invisible

Slowly but surely, I was coming back to myself

The employee lead to a room and opened the door. There were nine or ten other guys in the room. I sat down on my assigned bed and took off my shoes.

That first night I was in a fog. I was so tired, but I was happy to have a place to be inside. Minneapolis is too damned cold. I had a blanket and sheets and a pillow on the bed, which was an upgrade. I had to share the room, but the guys I was sharing the room with were cool. Well, most of them were.

I slept like a log

I was still homeless, but being upstairs was an upgrade. The female staff would walk into the room, so we slept in our clothes as I did downstairs.

We had rules to follow

We had to keep our areas clean. If our area was cluttered we got cited, and if we received too many citations, we were back on the streets.

The best thing we had was Wi-Fi. I could talk to Olivia as much as I wanted to. It didn’t take long. I was rested enough to get out to explore a little.

I had been walking every day to the library, freezing my butt off in the cold. I saw the walkways connecting the office buildings. I didn’t know downtown was linked by a skyway.

The Skyway fascinated me

Olivia had sent me money for a haircut, and one of the guys went with me to the barbershop, and we took the skyway.

I was fascinated by the skyway. It was crowded with office workers and homeless people. My roommate and I walked to Nicollette Mall. We passed the Barnes & Noble. I noted the location. I would spend a lot of time there.

After that first walk in the Skyway, I would explore it often for the next two-and-a-half years. When I wasn’t reading or sleeping, I was talking to Olivia. We were getting closer; we fell in love, but we had never met in person.

I talked to her often

I would use the payphone to talk to her, but then we realized we could use Wi-Fi. From that point on, we talked to each other constantly.

Olivia would send me money, but I rarely received it. She sent me money to rent a P.O. Box at the post office around the corner. The P.O. Box fixed the problem.

Healing takes time

It was taking some time, but I was returning to my old self; little by little my confidence and self-worth were returning.

Final thought:

It takes a little time, and it might be slower than you would like, but you can get through it, so don’t give up.