What a Decade of Living Outdoors Taught Me About Survival

I left home at fourteen and lived outside for most of a decade. Some might have called me homeless, but I would just say, “The Earth is my home.”

I have lived outdoors in almost every US state and during all seasons. I have slept on ocean beaches, on top of mountains, under bridges, deep in our national forests, amongst the chaparral in the desert, and many days’ arduous travel from the nearest civilization in the Minnesota-Canada Boundary Waters. I have had to burrow through snowdrifts to find shelter and huddle in caves with the…