Yes, as I mentioned before I am gay.   The is one of the hardest trials and tribulations that I have ever been through.  I came out to the first few of my friends at the beginning of my senior year in high school.  I was 17 years old.  The pain that I felt trying to hide who I really was, was eating me up inside.  I had to tell someone or I was going to explode.  The first of these people and the first person that I ever told was my friend Heather. 

For all of you out there who are thinking of coming out of the closet I hope that you have a friend like Heather.    I was still not comfortable with even saying the words that I was gay so I told her through a 2 page poem that  had written at the time.  I handed her the poem as I dropped her off at home...and told her to stay outside and read it.   While she read it I was going to drive around the block and if she was still outside when I came back I was going to take it as a good sign.   I had never had so much trouble driving around the block in my entire life. I was shaky all over and already starting to cry.  When I pulled up and she was still there I parked and immediately started sobbing.  She just came up...gave me the best hug I have ever had, and said, "It's OK, I still love you".  What a relief.  We stayed and hugged for a few minutes when Heather decided that this was one of those times when we needed to share some Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream.  She got me laughing again.  =)  It was the best outcome I could have hoped for and more. 

Well, the way I came out to the rest of my friends is not that interesting.  I was smashed drunk at me and my friends New Years party in 97 and told the world.  Funny huh.  But again they were all totally supportive and did not have a problem at all.  I did not lose even one friend over this issue.  HOORAY!

My parents...that is a different story.  They found some things that I had written while they were snooping on the computer and my mom flipped.  She called me home from work...and I had to endure what seemed like an eternity of conversation with her until my dad got home.  Then the saga continued.  They kept saying things like, "Ryan thinks he is gay", and stuff like that.  I tried to explain that I knew that I was gay but they were not hearing.  I would come home to find bible passages taped to my door...but after that is was something that we did not talk about much.  We are a lot cooler now though.  I guess that we pretty much agree to disagree and let it be at that.  Not that it did not take a long time to get to that point.