We hide in fear, run away from situations, and hope for a better day. The world we live is frightening because we never know what is to come next. There’s time where we must close our eyes and hope for the best. We noticed that this is a world where if you don’t try and take chances, you’ll never know what will happen next. Society tends to influence our thoughts, decisions, and how we analyze reality.

Dear the Individual Who Survived,

The decisions you made and the thoughts that you encountered only made you stronger. I don’t miss the person you used to be because you were miserable and scared of acceptance from society. You forgot the most important thing, if you were happy with what you decided and realized than no one should stop you from true happiness. I am thankful you finally realized.

You always felt scared about who you were, that all you ever did was run away from the issue. The thoughts that consumed you to hide and fear life was all about who would accept you, who you were, and if you could live with everything that was coming your way. The only issue at hand that you came to realize was you were running away from who you truly were. You knew it yourself that if you weren’t being truthful with yourself and society, then you were never going to be happy.

The day you decided to let society know that you were gay and accepted the fact that there will be some adapting to it made me so happy. I was glad to see you happy and not worried about what to think, say, or act because you wanted to hide everything you were.

You adapted to all the changes to your life and as you were still learning about yourself you matured. You were always someone who was afraid of who they were, but they you became someone who embraced everything you ever did. The things you did inspired others to never worry about silly things that were out of their control. You grew with strength, endurance for the world you wanted to live in, and learned more about life than most people did within years of experience.

You thought you were going to lose all your “friends” but you noticed that if they couldn’t accept you, then they weren’t your friends because they couldn’t see you being happy. I remember there would be times where people would call you a “faggot” and you never let it get to your head, because you saw passed their ignorance. You have been bullied and worried that this was going to destroy your mentality, but you always stepped up and worried about what matters which was the life you created. The life you always wanted was finally coming together and you weren’t letting ill-behaved individuals stand in your way.

You put yourself on a platform of integrity, strength, and maturity. You built everything on your own, because all you ever wanted was to be happy.

I guess I wrote this because it breaks my heart to see individuals worried about who they are. If I can give them any advice I love who I am and being gay is something I embrace, because if I don’t embrace and love myself then I will never be happy.

Just remember you will survive.