How did you become independent after living with parents all your life?

They kicked me out. They were already unhappy that I had started getting piercings--conservative Christians that they are--and then they found out that I had a LOT more piercings than they were able to see. Like, about 2x as many. And I had a lot of visible piercings. That led to a long period that was very, very difficult, including being kind of homeless for a while.

Bad times.