Well, I’m making good progress on my coming out narrative, except that it’s way over 1,000 words and will probably be between 2,000 to 3,000 words when I’m done. Sorry… I don’t usually write short stuff. But I’ll post it when I’m done anyway and hopefully you guys will still want to read it. 🙂 You guys know me pretty well anyway, the intended audience for this narrative is the upperclassmen who are with me in my Bible class. I hope one day to be able to read my story to them, so that hopefully they can have a better understanding of the issue and how it relates to real people, and in particular a person that they actually know. I’ve known for a long time we’d discuss homosexuality in class and I’ve always wondered what the best way to articulate my beliefs to my classmates would be. Now I think that telling my coming out story is the best possible idea, to show how what I believe is directly linked to my own personal experience and so that I have something tangible prepared in advance. Looking forward, I know 2010 is going to be a big year for me, not only because of the class (which for those who care will be maybe April or May) but also because I’ll be going to a brand-new community full of people who don’t know me – meaning I’ll have to start the process of coming out all over again! Except unlike the first time I started coming out, this time I actually look forward to it, because I know now that I am more accepting, calm, and stable than I was before. I also know that through coming out I may be able to help people who have not yet come to a place of peace over these struggles as I have or even those who have a gay friend or relative and struggle with accepting him or her. Before, and especially when I was totally closeted, I associated coming out with fear and rejection, but when thinking about the future and being at college, I think of coming out as a way that I can help people and bring peace to troubled souls. Having this perspective makes the future look all the more exciting. It will be hard, I’m sure, but with God, I know I can withstand. So that’s all for now. If things work out on this end, you’ll be hearing from me soon with the first edition of my coming out story. Thanks guys and I love you all.

Today, Jan. 22, is my 18th birthday… I started this thread when I was 16 and now I am 18.

When I woke up and was still in bed, I remember my first waking thought was something along the lines of “thank you God for bringing me this far”. I have many things to be grateful for… and I know that compared to many other kids in my situation, I’m very fortunate. 18 is a significant age… the entrance door of adulthood, I’d say. Wild… praying that God will use me and that I will make the most out of this one life I have.

happy birthday getting there…….has it been two years…….that is fantastic. We have been blessed to be observers and participators in your journey

Thank you everyone. 🙂

AVB – it has not actually been two years, because I started posting here in October. Since my birthday is in January, the time I’ve been on the forum has been less than a year and a half. But it’ll be two years soon enough, hehe.

Hello. Just wanted to share a quick update. Lots of things I could say, so I’ll try to make this short.

Basically, my life has been going better recently. Ps. Rob Buckingham has been a huge blessing to me and we have been talking a bit about things, and he has been a huge encouragement to me. This marks a significant change in my spiritual growth as this is the first time I’ve really felt comfortable speaking openly with spiritual authority of any kind. Another thing he did was get me in contact with some other strong Christian gay guys who are now my friends. They have been a great encouragement to me and I mean, just being able to say to myself that I have a gay friends who are also strong Christians, that’s really cool. I also count that as a big improvement in my life and part of why I say my life is better now than it was before.

Second. We have to write a fairy tale about our life for Bible class that symbolizes our life struggles and how in the end, God helped us find a happy ending (Heaven or change in this life on Earth). I’m going to write mine on coming to terms with my sexuality using symbols to represent different things. I’m really excited about this project. My hope is that my Bible teacher will read it and understand it, maybe learn something of how incredibly painful the struggles I went through were. After I’m done, I’ll definitely share it with you guys. Since I want to go into film, I thought I should practice by trying to draw a storyboard to organize my thoughts. When I finally got to the end, the happy ending, and realized what it meant, I seriously started crying, overwhelmed with what God did in rescuing me from what my life could have been. Anyway. Really looking forward to working on this, as I know it will be a challenge, but also because this is a huge opportunity for me to get in writing the story of my life in a non-confrontational way. Should be good.

Anyway. That’s all for now. You guys are awesome. 🙂 See you around.