I almost feel guilty sometimes that my coming out was so easy (except to my parents, which hasn't happened yet). Early in high school, I had finally begun to overturn some of the self-hatred (I went through a "nasty Christian" phase; I'm into my "nice Christian" phase now) that had kept me from realizing that the feelings I'd had for other guys for as long as I could remember might mean that *shock* I was gay. I just couldn't tell anybody. I eventually decided that I just couldn't keep it in much longer, but at the same time I couldn't get up the courage to tell anybody. Finally, in the middle of one of those high school math classes (which still give me nightmares), it came up in conversation that one of the other students sitting at my table was gay. Before I would let myself have a chance to think it over, I just said, "Oh really? Me too." As it turned out, not only did none of my friends care, but some had figured it out already. I would have been just a bit embarrassed at having stayed quiet so long had it not been for such a great feeling of relief at being honest. Now if I could just tell my parents now that I've moved out...hey, you never know, maybe I'll get the same reaction from my mother that another friend of mine did on his coming out to his mother: "Oh really? Me too."
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