When I woke up, I looked at my phone and saw the time. It was already 11:00 AM. I had
two hours before I was going to have this “big event”. I ended up spending all the time talking to
friends on Facebook (who knew) about the post, and how long I had had it done (I actually had
written the post itself about three months prior to this, July 9th/10th, actually). When the time
came, I clicked on the “What’s on your mind?” box, where I would be posting my coming out
message. I was so nervous that no one would see the post, or read more t han a paragraph
(Here is the actual Facebook post: http://tinyurl.com/hl43752). The few friends I had talked
to were spamming my messages with “I’m waiting! I’ll be the first to like!” They knew this was a
pretty nerve-wrecking (and risky, not knowing the reactions from people) thing to do. I went to
my notes, frantically trying to find the note I had written in July, specifically meant for this day.
(The post ended up being around 20 minutes later than I wanted it to be posted) I finally found
the long note, and I copied it. I went back to Facebook and pasted it into the box, checked for
any errors, and finally, clicked the dark blue “Post” button.
My friends that I had been talking to immediately went to like the post. They told me they
were going to read it as well, so they were sorry if they didn’t respond for the next few minutes
(as they had seen how long it was already). Within a couple of minutes I already had some
friends and family of mine comment and message me about the post. I was kind of nervous to
read all of these messages and comments because I was so sure that it’d be the next thing my
friends and I talk about at school or the next thing talked about when I visit my family.
[Actual message from my cousin Jenna]
“I didn't want to embarrass you by commenting on your fb post, but I just wanted to say
that i thought it was really courageous and that I love your quotes and totally agree with
everything you said. I think you put everything in a very articulate way.
I'm always on the side of how gender doesn't matter, it's the specific person you love.
Anyway! I love and support you no matter what and think it's so cool that you were so
open about everything!”