What Happened on Wednesday

Part Six

The next day was, easily, one of the best days of my life. It was July 1st, 2018, and it was the day I met the person that drug me by my feet out of that terrible place and helped me to become a better person, to move past the scariest moments of my life, to become the person I was always meant to be. Catherine Owen, a girl I had known when I was in kindergarten. She had moved in with her dad and I hadn't seen her in years.

But now, she was back, and from the moment I saw her, I could tell that I had fallen so deeply in love that I would never be able to drag myself out. Seeing her was like a feeling that all of the bad things in my life, all of the bad memories, everything was gone. Not even the brightest firework could light up my life like she did in that very moment. Her face was covered in freckles like the sky at night, and for the first time in a long time, I saw the universe in a nice light. I saw the stars on her skin and the blush on her cheeks as the deep, vast ocean of the universe instead of a blue and purple bruise lining my collarbone. For the first time in a long time I thought that the universe was a beautiful thing, because that's all that I can see in her. Those freckles changed my life from that day forward. I didn't think I could fall in love again after what Oliver had done to me, but seeing Catherine brought me back to life.

Catherine and Joliene were enough encouragement and support for me that they were truly there for me and wonderful for me for me to come out to the school publicly and show the world who I really was- I am not Aura, I am Oscar, the boy I always have been. I came out to everyone in October of 2018, I told my school the secret that I had been hiding for over a year. I wasn't hiding just from the people around me, I was hiding from myself. The thing is, I have a wonderful relationship with my teachers. It wasn't just my best friends and my girlfriend that made me realize who I was and how strong I am. Mrs. Mirum, my American History teacher, was one of the first people I told. I was still in eight grade and she and her husband, my science teacher, were two of the people that gave me the most support. Of course, there were rumors that flew almost immediately, once of which was "Mrs. Mirum only likes you because you are transgender and she feels bad for you."

That one I tried to ignore, but after I came out to the Mirum's, I felt so supported and loved by adults that may have well had been my parents. At this point, my family didn't know. I wasn't sure if they would accept me. I was not sure if the Mirum's would accept me either, but I was pleasantly surprised when they did. Even before I came out to them, they were a huge support to me.

Mr. Mirum approached me one day. He pulled me aside after class and said, "Her Aura, I found this jacket. It was mine in high school. It reminded Mrs. Mirum and I of you."

"Oh, nice." I said.

"Yeah, we wanted to know if you would like to have it."

Confusion set in first. This had been the first time he reached out to me other than small talk. I asked him to reiterate, and he did. He again asked me if I wanted his old jacket from the eighties. I agreed, and then I didn't take it off for two weeks straight, the sleeves dangling off of my arms. It was huge on me. Up until the day I moved, I would walk down the hallway past Mr. Mirum's door, his smile lighting up the hallway when he saw his old jacket coming back to life. It was so random- but it was one of the most meaningful things to ever happen to me. Something as small as a brown biker jacket. Coming from a teacher especially, this was something that I would never forget.

I wore the jacket all throughout the winter of 2018 and to the spring of 2019 when something happened that I will truly always remember. It was April and I was at a track meet in Scotland County, Missouri, wearing that brown biker jacket and had a blanket wrapped around me as my friend from Memphis got prepared to take off. Her name was June and as she got settled into her blocks, a gust of wind blasted me in the face and a cold chill reached up my spine. It reminded me briefly of Oliver's cold hands on my back slipping into my bra, but I felt comfortable in the fact that with my chest binder, that wouldn't be possible.