Sure, I did. Don't most angsty teenagers? Okay, so I'd thought of running away a looong time before I was a teenager but I only carried out the act once 'round age 16. I did it in complete luxury- had a car to drive, bunked with my best friend and was fed, watered, and looked after. Didn't wind up working out so well, though.

Since I was a dependent to the household I'd run from and the car was in the name of a person there, guilt and shame had me returning what I didn't have the right to take. The escape didn't remedy my situation, make any points to the people caring for me, and ultimately accomplished nothing except a brief vacation from the environment I was in.

'Course I did get out eventually, and I did it maturely and permanently. Now as a Real Adult™ running away isn't exactly an option- or if it is, the penalty far outweighs the act itself. Can be tough to overcome instinct, but it is possible. Even the more spineless folk like me learn how to pick and choose between fight or flight eventually.



Hah! Boy, is that one ever true... Tough and sometimes uncomfortable to live with, sure, but not as difficult to live with as skeletons in the closet. Still workin' on it, over here. Kudos to y'all who have mastered that valuable skill of courage and conflict resolution. It's also lovely to see folks who respect their parents, most parents are deserving of it at the end of the day.

I ran away three times between the ages of 12-15. (By ran away I mean really ran away, gone for a few days and not at a friends house.) DSS finally rescued me at 16 though. I guess my point is that although most of the time running away is not the answer some people in some situations have no choice and I am not going to judge who has valid reasons and who doesn't.

I never really had much of a reason to run away, dont think I ever actually considered it. I didnt really have much of an issue living at home, had the occasional issue with my parents, but nothing that big. For the most part when I was young, my parents allowed me to do whatever I wanted to do as long as I called ahead of time if I wasnt going to be home that night, or arriving after they went to bed. Never really got caught doing anything I shouldn't have been either, so my parents trusted my judgement.

Also, after I graduated from high school, I decided to go to college 4+ hours away, so after graduation I pretty much stopped living at home and did my own thing.

I never had too much of a reason to. Freedom would be really nice but I'm not suffering enough....yet. Currently in my apartment near campus anyway. It's sort of like running away.

I ran away once. to another state. because I could gamble all I want and no one would tell me otherwise. and as soon as I made my first friend there... she told me I gamble much..... than I was bummed.... so I decided to go back to where I came from.

Yup, I ran away for a whole night, then came back in the morning, i got hungry.
& no one noticed i was even gone....

Let's see I ran away once when I was 9 because I was grounded and the new episode of V was coming on and I wasn't going to miss that alien baby being born. This reference will be lost on the younger cats. I also ran away for days at a time when my Father got paranoid schizophrenia. I would just stay away until he forgot why he was trying to kill me... So, if you think your young life is bad meditate on that before you run away because you're "misunderstood" or whatever...

I never ran away or even thought of running away. I knew too well that my father was my only source of food, shelter and clothing and I only got in trouble for doing things that I knew that I shouldnt have been doing. I was a bad kid.

At some point in the future, I plan on cutting all ties with my family and everybody else and just disappearing to some other area in the world (probably Japan), but I've made a commitment to myself that I wouldn't even consider that UNTIL I have payed back my parents a substantial amount of money to compensate them for how they've taken care of me since birth ( food, school costs, toys etc.).

However as there's no way for me to get an accurate figure, I'd say around twenty thousand dollars would be more than generous (it may take years to come up with that but it gives me a huge goal to focus on). After that, considering I don't care for other people, I'll finally be able to focus on my own life and not put others before me.

I've contemplated it a few times. Beats staying in one city, doing the same routine every single day, getting nowhere in life. I figure if I did, I wouldn't be so comfortable in my niche and I'd really have to test my social and survival skills. I'm an adult now so why not? I've considered the reasons to run away and most of them deal with my inability to cope with modernity and the dullness stemming from it and the disillusionment with the prospect of being a slave to money for the rest of my life. Probably would load up my car with clothing and outerwear, guns, ammunition, hatchet, knife, rope, and the basic necessities to start a fire, drive out to uninhabited and undeveloped land and sustain my self on game meat and carve out an existence, even though it would be meager and far fetched even for me. Not anytime soon

Just think... what would Shinji Ikari do?

I considered running away when I was little but I never had anywhere I could go. I didn't even have friends where I could hope to stay with.

When I was 8 and again at 14, but no where to go. No money and I feared of getting harmed on the streets. :3

I've considered it, but never followed through cause i know my family would use every means to track me down. It's happened before when i was a kid

The thought of leaving everything behind and starting a new life is an attractive thought. But by the time you have the means to make something like that possible you are most likely tied down by too many things.... I still hope to run away one day~ or rather move towards a new life in a new place