My boyfriend and I want to runaway.

[Guest]

I know how it must sound to say my boyfriend and I plan on running away together. Anyone would say we're crazy for wanting to runaway just to be together, but here my story before you judge me. I am 18, an age I thought I'd never live to see. My whole life I've been depressed and suicidal, even more so recently. My father was an abusive drunk and my mother a party girl who became a teen mom. Growing up with pretty awful but it had started to get better until recently my mother got into some serious drugs. Now I live in a run down house with my 4 half siblings and step father. I have no prospect for the future. I don't get good grades. I literally have no friends. My family can't afford to send me to college as I come from a really poor home. I had plans to end it all until I met my boyfriend online.
He is 17. He lives in California while i live in Pennsylvania. His story was a bit better than mine but he too had plans to kill himself. We met five months ago on a depression chat website. We fell in love, face timed every day and more recently met for the first time. After he left we both realized we can't be without each other. We've both been a wreck without each other but the way things are now we can't be together. We won't see each other more than once every few months.
We decided we're going to run away together. We were never going to be anybody anyway so why not. Next month I'm visiting him for prom. That is when we hope to make our escape. We'll take his car, drive as far as we can and ditch it so it'll be harder to find us. We'll leave everything behind except what we can carry and nothing that'll help identify us. My question is, what do we do once we run? How do we survive? What are the repercussions of us running away? Can we disappear completely? If so, how?

[ccsmod7]

Hi,

Thanks so much for reaching out. It sounds like you’re in a tough situation, so it’s really good to see that you’re taking control and trying to figure out some options. Considering your situation, it doesn’t sound crazy that you want to run away. You don’t deserve to live in a home that you don’t feel safe in. I’m so sorry that you’ve been struggling with depression, but I’m glad to hear that you and your boyfriend have been able to support each other. If you ever want to talk to someone else about it, you can always call 1-800-TALK (8255) to speak anonymously and confidentially to a crisis counselor.

If you were to run away and your parents or his parents both did not report you to the police, there might not be trouble with the law. If they did report you and the police were to find you, they would most likely just bring you back home. Running away is a status offense- not a crime- which means you won’t be arrested or charged unless you are not cooperating. Unless your parents or his parents told one of you themselves, you wouldn’t necessarily know if they had reported you as missing, and in that case you might be constantly paranoid.

It’s hard to survive on the run. You would have to consider factors like food, shelter, school, health care, and a bunch of other stuff too. It’s possible that you could find a shelter to live in. If you want to look into shelter options, you can call us anytime at 1-800-RUNAWAY (786-2929). We have a database with resources that include shelters and transitional living homes. We also have a conference call service that you could use if you wanted to talk things out with your parents while one of our liners is on the phone to support you.

If you wanted a different option other than running away, you could consider a few things. First, you could try asking your parents if they would let you go live with your boyfriend. You could also see if he would be allowed to come live with you. These options might not be reasonable depending on what your parents are like, but with these at least you and your boyfriend wouldn’t be constantly on the run and stressed.

Again, we’re really glad that you reached out to us. It takes a lot to ask for help and you clearly are strong. If you would like to talk further about your situation, please do not hesitate to call or chat with us. We’re here to listen, here to help.