Hello Brianna,

Viviana here.

Your message has been on my mind.

CONGRATULATIONS on your candidacy for the U.S. Congress!!

Assuming that I understood what you said correctly, your story touched me in a personal way too. My niece came out to her parents this summer and she has been banished by her entire family. More to the story, but it made yours very close to home and I want you to know that I have enormous respect for your courage. It is inconceivable to me what you have gone through, and especially the reason why.

Brianna, I use the word “homelessness” from the pure angle that I had no domicile, nowhere to go at night, no home, not even a closet. I could spend a few hours arranging my things in the storage room, but I had to leave at a certain hour. I was not completely broke, but I was living off of student loans, and by no means was my experience free from anguish and fear; but I knew that I would be fine despite the hardships, and that the whole experience would deliver something positive in the end.

Me saying this is not intended to imply that I considered myself a homeless person in the sense you refer, which is why I prefaced the title of my article with “voluntary”. I could not stop my condition at any point, in fact, because I had no plan, — those develop over time, as you know.

Linguistically I am able to use the term, but I know that when people who have suffered the pain and anguish of forced homelessness, read the story as a never-ending party , (which is erroneous), it seems as if I trivialize it, but I don’t. My article does NOT address homelessness, it only tells my personal experience during the time when I had no home for the benefit of anyone for whom it resonates.

I wish you the best on your campaign and your journey.