Coming Out 101

30

As a child, I obviously grew up as the gender and sexuality I was born to be, a cisgendered straight female. However there was always small quirks. It started when I was even in preschool, I was obsessed with this girl. Whatever she liked, I made myself like too. I tried talking to her as much as possible and we became best friends, and that's when I thought about marriage. Of course I was taught that it's always "a mommy and a daddy" but I started to wonder "what if this girl and I were mommies together?" Naturally, I pushed the thought away because it seemed so weird and alien at the time. However things never really changed, in fact it only became more normal for me to like being around girls. At the same time, I started hanging out with boys and becoming "a tomboy." Soon enough, it became more than that. What I always found weird is, I liked girls, but didn't feel like one. Eventually, I started getting crushes on boys and I didn't feel like a boy either. By 5th grade I was going insane because all of a sudden girls were becoming even more pretty and some guys were really sweet, and I was confused about why I had to choose what gender I liked, or what gender I had to be. I stopped hanging out with friends and I isolated myself for a while. Time skip to now. I've realized that I'm nonbinary and bisexual. My friends have been so amazing to me since I've come out but I've yet to tell my parents. I've gained confidence with my part of the LGBTQ+ community and best of all, I have a girlfriend who's the light of my world.