Why I'm Doing This
Why I'm Doing This
Who I Am
Chris
Hikel
I grew up as one of seven siblings in a family that lived below the poverty line. Four of us kids shared one bedroom in a cramped apartment complex. My mother, who had just lost her husband to cancer, didn’t have a bedroom of her own — she slept on the couch. Eventually, we were forced to move to more affordable housing.
I came to Cincinnati by choice with nothing more than my Honda Civic, a couple bags of clothing, and a job offer. Today, I have a better life than sixteen-year-old me could ever imagine. Cincinnati has given me everything. Most importantly, it’s finally given me a place to call home. My partner Alek and I currently live in downtown Cincinnati and we want to give back to the city that has given so much to us.
After coming out as gay to my mother at age 16, I was kicked out of our house. One day I had a home and the next day I was homeless. I spent the next year without a stable place to stay while I worked at McDonald’s and obtained my own legal guardianship. During that year I was forced to grow up in a way that most can never imagine without any sort of stability. Were it not for the generosity of a distant cousin who took me in and a small town that invested in its kids through education, I would have remained aimless and hopeless. My cousin was not wealthy — he made a living as a truck driver — but he believed in family.
I was fortunate enough to earn a full scholarship to college, which was one of the single most important events in my life. It meant that I could pursue learning, knowledge, and skills, uninhibited.