Acceptance is a very black or white concept. Most people either accept something or really do not. That is especially true for gay people; someone is either good with me liking women or are very against it. When I came out everyone around me, even people who didn’t know me, decided it was their responsibility and right to let me know exactly how they felt.  Those who decided that my “choice” was disgusting and wrong made my coming out process and daily life a living hell. I was bullied, lost countless amounts of friends and became the outcast which all led to me cutting.

Within the same week of me deciding to come out to my friends, and only my friends, the entire school had found out. By the second week I was being pushed down the stairs by the same group of guys nearly every day. I was too scared to tell anyone and didn’t even know who to tell or where to go. So, I put up and shut up and listened to guys three times the size of me justify that they could hurt me because I wasn’t really a girl.

Compared to the bullying the friends I was losing at a rate that I couldn’t even understand was so much worse. I ended up being pushed further and further away till eventually it was just me all on my own while my former friends whispered, pointed and laughed a lot.

It was like nobody cared at all and I had no one left. As the pain grew it became obvious that I had to do something to make it all numb. That’s when I started cutting. It made emotional pain so much easier to deal with by making it physical.

Now four years later because of great teachers and people that stepped up to help me get through I am confident walking through my halls, getting so many friends back with new ones thrown in there too and the scars on my wrist are nothing but memories of why I’ll be helping people in the future. I came out…and I’m not going anywhere!