--- Mark or Travis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I just want to clarify here & now that my experience > growing up was a walk > in the park compared to what Colin has told us > about. There are certainly > worse things than not being popular in high school. > I was made fun of but > for whatever reason, managed to avoid the physical > abuse that a lot of gays > suffer during childhood and adolescence. I did date > a couple of girls in > high school so maybe that was enough to cast a > shadow of doubt in people's > minds. One of these girls I may have ended up > marrying if I hadn't broken > up with her. That would have been a huge mistake > for both of us. But I was > different, no question about it, and most of my > classmates never let me > forget it. Confusion, guilt, fear about one's > sexuality are very difficult > emotions to cope with & overcome. I don't want to > minimize that. But I > certainly didn't have it nearly as bad growing up as > a lot of other people. >
I think that, once you grow up, you realize you weren't the only one who felt alienated and confused - except that, back then, you probably thought you were the only person in the universe who was *such* a loser. I felt like a total geek all through high school (still do very often, 'cept now, most of the time, it doesn't bother me much!) but years later, talking to others that seemed OK at the time, I found out that many of them felt the same way. Which is not to mitigate the fact that there were bullies then, as there are now, that relish making others' lives miserable, by their words or by their actions. I was never picked for sports teams either but years later, I don't even care - I never cared much for most sports, especially of the team variety, so I really didn't want to be picked at all for the baseball team! As far as sexuality is concerned, I think it's unusual when young people ARE sure of theirs, whether they're gay or straight. The teenaged years are tough to go through altogether, so kids who have confidence are pretty unusual, IMO. Let me tell you - I would never go back there again! I'm so glad to see that my daugher, who has just turned 15, is enjoying high school (so far). She doesn't belong to the "cool" kids and sometimes she refers to herself and her friends as the "losers" but she laughs about it. I reminded her that those who are "cool" now (the ones that smoke, do drugs, steal, make fun of or bully others) will, for the most part, be tomorrow's losers - a few of them will realize they're making a mistake and will change (and be the better for their experience) but others will just go on being the same - getting drunk, getting high, not doing much of anything at all. The geeks win in the end (ha ha). ______________________________________________________________________ File your taxes online! http://taxes.yahoo.ca
