by Georgia McClellan
Discovering your sexuality is a personal and important step in life for those in the LGBT community. However, knowing
your sexuality and accepting your sexuality are two very different things. I see people everyday who know their sexuality but because of societal or family pressures, they are not comfortable being themselves fully.
I have known my sexuality since I was in the second grade and had a crush on one of my female classmates. I teased her relentlessly, just as any eight year old with a crush would do. So while I knew from an early age I liked girls, I did not accept my sexuality until then tender age of 20, and that was one hell of a process to get there.
For years and years I pushed away my feelings and pretended to be what I thought society wanted me to be. To be fair, I
thought I was fitting in just fine and doing a good job being “straight.” Apparently I was not and everyone still knew I was definitely not straight (though I would not know that until many years later).
I spent most of my late teens in a constant battle of trying to fit in and being true to myself. I convinced myself that my lack of romantic feelings toward boys was completely normal and that everyone was lying about crushes. Turns out they were not.There were a lot of tears and many sleepless nights where I would wonder why I was not the same. Why I was different. All I wanted at the ageof16wastofitinwithall the other girls. Sadly, I felt like I did not.
For a long time, feeling different bothered me; in certain situations it still does. It was not until I went to college and I met some incredible people my sophomore year that made me feel like I was not different simply because of who I loved. They just accepted me so fully for who I am. It was startling. It was unexpected. It was an incredible feeling.
From there on I found it easier to accept who I am and now I am at the point where I am fully confident with who I love. So confident I even write a weekly column strictly about the glorious LGBT community. I am not sure there is any more confidence to be had. I have pretty much reached the peak.
So I know that sexuality is tough.Knowingyoursexuality is certainly a key step in the process of figuring out who you are, but so is acceptance. Acceptance comes differently for everyone. For me, it was finding friends that could not care less about my sexuality and having the opportunity to express my feelings in this weekly column.
If you are still on the path of acceptance, it is okay. It is okay to struggle and it is okay to feel a little overwhelmed by it, but please do not ever give up on it. Everyone deserves to live their life to the highest potential. Love who you love, and love that you love them.
That was a mouthful but you still get it.
