I am sure that everyone has seen the countless men and women standing near heavy traffic holding up their “homeless need money” or “will work for food” cardboard signs, or the men and women who sit alongside the buildings that many of us current on a daily or weekly basis, but what about those who do not make their horrible situations public? What about the people and families are who too embarrassed to even tell their own family and friends?We all see the bare outside of what it really means to be homeless and what this can do to a person’s wellbeing.

Here is a firsthand look at the life of a family of four living in a tent.

My family became homeless in a matter of 24 hours. Yes, it can really happen that quickly. On January 29^th, my family was notified that we were being forced to vacate our rental. In the matter of a day, my husband, our two young children; ages four and one, and I went from living happily in our duplex to spending well over $500 on six nights in a hotel to spending the following three weeks living in a four-person tent.

I, as a full-time student at SNHU, had to file for incompletes in my courses (which allows me an extra month to complete my work without any penalties) and o on hiatus from SNHU Odyssey as a Content Creator and their Social Media Director because I could not handle the workload on top of being homeless and suffering from an extreme depressive episode.

My husband and I both lost weight and began to speak less and less, effectively beginning to grow apart.

We no longer cuddled, kissed or really showed each other any true affection. We were so stressed, worried, and angry that it is as if we forgot that these little things were important in staying together and being able to get through this.In a matter of a month, we nearly divorced twice.

We literally spent hours driving around searching for a new rental, and we spent even more time online applying and trying to find jobs.We used up tanks upon tanks of gas, slowly eating up any money we had to move. Not only did we fail to obtain a new home, but we also had the same terrible luck on finding any jobs.

Anytime we came close to either, it was ripped out from underneath us. For example, we had spoken to a man who had planned to meet us the following morning so that we could sign a lease (FINALLY! YAY!), but then we called us back not much later to inform us that his wife did not want to rent, but, instead, she wanted to remodel.

Just like that, we were back to square one and feeling defeated. Another example would be my husband finally landing a new job. We were so happy, but this job just keeps getting pushed back and postponed. Bam, back to square one…yet again.

We tallied up many negative and soul-crushing marks within the 28 days in February that we were not sure we would ever get back on our feet. We began to lose all hope and started to expect the worst of anything that came our way.

On top of everything going wrong, our four-year-old daughter would question us almost daily on when our new home was going to be ready. She was to the age where she knew we moved out of our home, but she did not quite understand the full extent of the situation.

Our taxes came in and gave us a new hope, a hope that slowly started to burn out as we were still not having any luck finding a home or jobs. Thankfully, I FINALLY got a call back about an interview at Harbor Freight Tools.I was so excited, yet nervous with my anxiety. (Are things finally starting to look up for us? I thought) I went to my interview and the manager said that it was looking good (meaning that I was likely to get the job, even though it was only part-time).

On February 28^th, I came across a small 2-bedroom home for rent in Spring Hill, Florida. We went that night to go walk through it and left our information with the woman renting it out. The next day, we met the same woman, signed our year lease and got the key to our NEW HOME.(Finally, a new shred of hope!)

On March 6^th, I got the call back from Harbor Freight saying that they wanted to hire me on as a new team associate. My orientation is on Thursday, March 8^th. On top of that, my husband FINALLY starts his job this weekend (12-hour shifts, three days a week).

Being homeless is more than what you see.It is more than those sitting around doing nothing and begging for what others have. When you are homeless, it destroys who you are and what you have built. Being homeless also toughens you up and makes you appreciate the things that you do have, but you cannot just sit around waiting for those things to come to you; you must put in the work to change your situation and prevent it from happening a second time.

What I want to reach everyone who is facing this situation, has been, or is in this situation, no matter how rough things are seeming, no matter how little hope you have left, please, please, hang on to that little shred of hope because, when you work hard enough, things will turn around for you.

Please, never give up in your darkest time because that is the time that you need hope the most.

An unknown source said, “Someday, everything will make perfect sense. So for now, laugh at the confusion, smile through the tears, and keep reminding yourself that everything happens for a reason.”