I don't enjoy making new friends.
I loathe the conversations I have with
my own friends about branching out
and meeting new people.
I know this makes me sound like
someone who lacks the ability to make
a friend, but I can't stress
enough how it really comes down
to how much I actually
care for and trust the friends
that I already have.

I'll start from the beginning so maybe you
can understand why it is I think this way.

I grew up in a traditional home, with a very loving family
that for most of my childhood allowed me to
be content with the life I was living.

Later in my youthful years, it became aware to me
that I was unlike the typical child. I was not the average boy
who imagined walking on grains of sand while holding hands
with his beautiful wife. I was not the "ordinary" boy who one day
pictured himself fathering children with a loving newlywed who I
would spend the rest of my life with.

You see,
these societal standards of achievement to which
I could never merit only made me notice how
little I could ever contribute to the plans
my family laid out for me.  

For the longest time I considered myself
to be a religious person, one that could worship
the God that I was raised to love.

The day that I finally welcomed my
"unnatural" thoughts as merely an echo of my
soul guiding me towards a better life
is also the day I began questioning
the existence of any higher being.

How could it be possible to feel so much joy
when looking at another boy, yet be so
hated for even having that feeling?
A feeling that was out of my control
from the moment I understood what it
was like to be attracted to another human.

Why is it so common for believers to
shun the feelings of people like myself
for simply wanting to enjoy life in the same way
they do? This is where my faith was destroyed.
I  just can't find myself to trust the teachings
of a creator who purposefully created me
to be considered an abomination in His eyes.

I look back on my adolescent years and
only now realize that I always lived in a glass box;
a world that appeared to be accepting and loving
but was rather shielding me away
from the true potential of happiness
that I now know I deserve.

Ever heard the term,
"coming out of the closet"?
Let me put it to you this way...

I have this memory of when I was little
of my babysitter locking me in a closet,
turning out all the lights,
and laughing to himself as I cried for hours.
For a very long time I was scared of dark places,
of being confined to an area that I was
forcefully put into.

As painful as it was in the moment,
I am beyond thankful for going through that
because it helped me to see light in a new way.
It may as well have been symbolic
of the future decisions I was
going to make, ones that would
show me how bright
my love could actually be.

Now, I ask this of you because
I want you to imagine what I went through,
but have you ever heard the term,
"coming out of the closet"?

If you haven't, then all I can tell
you is that it brings about the most
liberating emotion that I
have ever felt, and one
that I wish every similar minded kid like
me has the opportunity to experience.

It was tough admitting to my family that
I was going to put all their hopes aside,
and start allowing myself to break free
from that dark cage I was trapped in
for so long.

It went exactly as I knew it would.
The support that I was so used
to having seemed to swiftly fade away.
It was missing for a while,
but then I found it in the strangest of places.
Who knew that such love and acceptance
could come from people you never knew existed?

My friends from day one were
always there for me.
They were always that metaphorical handkerchief
for me to wipe my tears and the
punching bags for me to release my anger.

It may sound cliche,
but there are no words for me to
show how much I value the friendships
that I have been so blessed with.
There are no poems,
not even this one I'm writing,
cleverly worded enough to
represent the amount of love
I have for those I consider
to be my friends.

My friends have burrowed
into places of my mind
that let me feel like I have
a family again.

This is why
I despise the introductions of new
people into my life.
I am terrified of the possibility
that they will take me
away from the second family that
I worked so hard to convince myself
that I had.

I listen to my friends tell me
how I need to just let go and allow
myself to be free, and to
not be scared of meeting new people; but,
until they feel the same sense of family
being torn away from them
then their mouths may as well be
sewn shut.

Do you get it now?