Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice: The Creation of Little Gay Boys

2

June, 2012

It's the last day of fifth grade and I am incredibly excited. I had a very, interesting childhood to put it simply. My parents had bounced around between Milwaukee and West Bend, Wisconsin before finally setting down in Fond Du Lac. They went on to have my siblings; my brother Damion, and sister Kayleigh. Oh, and a divorce. My brother has an auto-immune disorder so I spent a good third of my childhood in The Children's Hospital of Wisconsin-Milwaukee wondering if he'd live. Aside from some mild trauma I survived, and he did too. Yeah, not funny. I get it but these are my experiences and I will joke about them if I want to. If you don't like that sort of thing you probably still have time to return this book. Unless you're like me and let this sit on a shelf in your "TBR" list for a year and a half before you finally cracked it open. Sorry, tangent over. (P.S. you'll probably have to get used to those as well it's an ADHD thing. I could edit those out, but this book is more for me than anyone else. So, in keeping with authenticity, they will stay in.)

On top of my parents divorcing when I was like 5 or something (I don't remember my exact age but I could tell you exactly where we where when they made the decision), and my brothers illness, I was also queer. Growing up gay in rural-ish Wisconsin was definitely an experience. I never had the most easy task when it came to staying in the closet. I'd always been a very affectionate, emotional and very eccentric person. (If I had a dime for every time someone described me as an "old soul" as a child, I would never have to work again, but we'll get to that later on.) Being an incredibly affectionate and emotional child brought on a lot of teasing from my classmates at a young age. Some of my earliest memories involve such teasing at school. I was often referred to as "sally", "sissy" and the like. What I didn't understand at that age is the qualities that I was berated for as a child are the very same qualities that help formed me into a well rounded adult. My affection, the genuine care and love I have for others has done me well. My emotional availability, however, has changed much since I was young.

As I walked out of Rosenow Elementary School that day, I was brimming with excitement. I knew that day was the last day I had to deal with the kids I had grown up with. The relationships I had formed with those peers, for better or worse, would soon fizzle and fade, come fall I would have the opportunity to start over. Little did I know that's a chance I would come to wish I had more often.