Hello!  My name is Chris, my friends call me Puck.  I was born in Terre Haute, in 1980.  My father’s name is Robert my mother Suzettea.  I have 1 brother whom is 2 yrs younger than me.   My family moved when I was 5 to the country where I went to a small elementary school and later to a small high school. 

          When I was 13 my parent divorced and my brother & I were stuck with my mother.  It was hard at that time since my mother worked full time & was going through a great deal of emotional instability.   She became emotionally & sometimes physically abusive to my brother & myself.  This was very stressful since our father was not able to be around and my brother & I were very violent towards each other. 

          Basically I had a troubled childhood.  Since I was young I was heavily involved in Cub Scouts & Boy Scouts.   My father being my troop leader in Boy Scouts taught me a great deal about survival & the woods.  This paid off since I was allowed at an early age the freedom to disappear and explore for extended periods on my own.  This allowed me a head start on my current way of life. 

My brother (Andrew) has told me that since I was younger I have always wanted to travel around & see the world.   At the age of 16 I was already working on this.  After high school I pretty much took up being a full time squatter stopping in cities and working & meeting people.  Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to learn a great deal.   Actually being on the road has been a whole lot like a college education.  Or at least trade school.

In 1997 I left high school & traveled around a lot and read a great deal.  By 1998 I had been to all but 4 states and that year made 1 more when I hit Alaska.  I have recently had the chance to change that and went to New Orleans last year and South Dakota.  Now I just have Hawaii left to go.

I have spent a lot of time studying indoor horticulture & have grown to love growing orchids and other tropical plants.  I have worked on this during the winter months when I settle down & move into a house, usually.  Currently my plants are with friends of similar studies.

The funding for my travels has come in many forms.  I a self-proclaimed “wonderful artist” and a great musician & street performer.  I have used my artistic talents to sell my art and my music to play for money in several places.  This has allowed me to barely slip by on occasion.  I have also done a small amount of street performance in a few places.   I am a human blockade, a glass walker, a firewalker, & I study sword swallowing.  This unorthodox way of life has been great for me since I don’t cope well with others.  I have a problematic illness know as a delusional disorder or schizophrenia.  This has caused me a great deal of trouble holding a job and even finishing high school.  It is very hard to make progress in life and I have kind of been thrust into a nomadic lifestyle.

That is where StandUp For Kids came into the story.  I moved to Boulder at the end of the summer after traveling for a little over a month.  I came from Asheville, NC where I had been off & on for the past 2 yrs.  When I arrived in Boulder I knew no one & had no money or resources.  Shortly after my arrival I was robbed & lost my identification & all ways to obtain a new one.  In the time since StandUp has helped me with food, socks, and someone to talk to, as well as a new I.d.  I am currently working on getting back on my feet thanks to StandUp.  I am hoping to use my I.d. to get a job & home & next spring a permit so I can start street performance once again.

I personally think I would have given up if not for StandUp For Kids.  I owe them a great deal of thanx and hope they can do as much for others in the future.  And that is my story.
 

-Chris