River Young: The Wanderer

Humidity and tension were in the air as screams echoed through senior River Young’s house. This summer, fights like these weren’t uncommon. Today was different though. Today was the day they had finally had enough of all the arguing. Today was the day Young left his home.

“Stuff at home was super rough all of a sudden,” said. “I guess you could just say everything was kind of like the snowball effect down the wrong way. Things just got super slippery and ugly really quick and I didn’t know how to handle anything.”

On the second day of August, River left his childhood home.

“We weren’t seeing eye to eye on anything whatsoever,” Young said. “When they told me to get out it was kind of just like to figure stuff out.”

While Young was struggling with his family situation, his friends were always by his side. He emphasizes the importance of keeping reliable friends near you in a tough situation.

“Totally just be yourself,” Young said. “Don’t take anyone else’s criticism. Just make yourself happy, do what pleases yourself. Find yourself a comfortable group of friends that you know will be there for as long as you need them.”

Two days after Coast Guard Festival, all the hype was starting to die down, and he decided to visit his parent’s house for the first time in a week.

“I was staying in touch with my parents, so we were trying to figure stuff out,” Young said. “Once we started seeing eye to eye again, we slowly started getting more in touch and I eventually came home to visit, see how everything was, and I ended up staying that night.”

His move out was difficult for not only him, but his parents as well. When he made the transition back into their home, they were happy to have him back.

“That break, in a way, was nice because once I came back and we figured stuff out, it was like we all kind of started back over, so we all could start where we left off, all clean,” Young said. “It’s crazy to say, but I feel clean. I feel so much better just about everything, like school, working, just everything.”

Although Young is in a good place in his life right now, things weren’t always so easy after he had gone through this experience.

“Coming back into school was hard,” Young said. “It was just hard to get back into the hang of things, feeling so off for so long. I was pretty much on my own there when I came back for a while.”

Through all the ups and downs, Young kept a positive outlook on everything he went through.

“I learned a bunch actually,” Young said. “It was actually a good time to figure out the real life on your own. It sounds weird to say, but it was kind of a good experience to figure that stuff out.”