Overcoming Obstacles In My Life

As an openly gay teenager, I've had many obstacles in my life. So many of those conflicts were in school. These conflicts began in the fourth grade, got worse throughout junior high, and continued to haunt me in high school. Those years in junior high were definitely the most difficult. I was the target of so much bullying and I was being called names that I didn't even know the meaning of. In fact, I didn't know what the word gay meant until around eighth grade. Every time someone would call me a "faggot" or ask if I was gay, I would just deny it because I didn't know what any of it meant. However, after discovering what it all meant I felt so panicked. I had no idea where to turn or who to talk to. I remember trying to convince myself that
Looking back at it, I'm extremely proud of myself for coming out at such a young age. It didn't stop there of course. During junior year I began to accept that I am gender-fluid. Gender-fluidity basically means that I don't feel as if my soul is completely male or completely female. I do identify as male, but I do not conform to standard gender roles forced upon us by society. Some days I feel more masculine, and other days I feel like putting my makeup on and painting my nails. I wasn't about to oppress myself again. I wasn't going to force myself into that dark place of self-loathing and I decided that I needed to be who I am. I began wearing makeup on the first day of school of my senior year this past August. Of course not everyone at my school was too thrilled when I began to do this. In fact when I did this it really sparked some talk and I became even more famous at school than before, which isn't saying much considering it's so small. The reactions I have received from both students and faculty varies from person to person. Some love and some hate it. Some actually hate it so much that they decided to threaten me. I did not expect the hate they had for me to go quite that far. However, I also didn't expect to be nominated for the homecoming court, much less win homecoming king, that October. It was around this time that I realized I was inspiring younger kids, some in junior high, some in high school. I look back to when I was younger and all I wanted was someone to look up to, someone who I identified with in some way. This is who I was becoming to these kids and I couldn't be happier knowing that everything I went through, and everything that I've done to become my absolute true self, has all helped them in some way. It's made me the person I've always wanted to be. I have more self-confidence than ever now. Everything I went through was completely worth it because being familiar with the dark place I was in, and knowing how it affected my