Leaving at 16: What I Took With Me (And What I Had to Unlearn)

I left home when I was 16. Not because I had a plan — but because staying felt harder than leaving.Before steady work and a place to lay my head at night, I wandered. The streets. The desert. Under bridges. Sometimes on a dirty mattress in the open. A lot of the time, though, I had good friends and parents who quietly helped more than they probably realized.This episode isn’t about trauma or blame. It’s about survival — the habits it builds, the strengths it creates, and the blind spots it leaves behind.The military didn’t save me. It gave me structure. My wife gave me a reason to want something better.A conversation about growing up fast, learning to survive, and realizing that survival isn’t the same thing as direction.