Looking over your shoulder

I can't believe how things have changed. I can't believe that was my life. As I sit here in my warm house with walls surrounding me, shielding out the cold and the danger, it's hard to imagine the cold, the hunger, the fear. But it's not necessary to imagine it because once, it was all too real. I was sixteen when I ended up a street "rat".
I know what it really means to need to watch your back. What it means to walk down the middle of a dark alley listening to the street sounds for any unexpected footsteps that might mean someone is following. And I know what it's like to grab a slice of pizza from the nearly empty pizza box sitting on top of the dumpster because you are that hungry and there is no food, no money and no place to call home. No one to call family... no one to call period. I understand the great appreciation for those mobile units that park on the streets of Hollywood in the darkness of night. The ones with the cup of noodle soups and the large thermoses of hot water bringing food to people who aren't quite sure when their last meal had been.
Yes, I remember those days and it's hard to believe that I was really that girl out there and that now, I sit here in the still, safe silence of my home as my baby sleeps and my daughter plays quietly in her room.