If your Nerve, deny you — go above your Nerve — Emily Dickinson (and Cheryl Strayed) This quote, from the movie Wild (and in turn from the book of the same name, and before that a poem by Emily Dickinson) is something I've been trying to keep in mind lately. The context in the movie/book is a very different one from coming out, and yet the quote — and Cheryl's whole journey — has been resonating with me. I'll be getting together with a group of friends this weekend. Many of whom I consider close friends. Some I've known a very long time, 20+ years. And hoping I'll be able to come out to them. This isn't the first time I've been in that situation. I've thought about coming out to them before, over the past few years, in similar situations. But this time feels different. I never felt particularly nervous before — it was always "eh, maybe I'll come out, maybe I won't, whatever." And I always chickened out. This time I'm nervous as hell, which is maybe a good thing inasmuch as it means I've shifted from a "whatever" mentality to an "I need to do this" mindset. And I'm not worried that I'll get a bad reaction — I have no reason to believe anyone in the group would be anything less than supportive — I guess I'm just worried that I'll be treated differently. [YOUTUBE]tn2-GSqPyl0[/YOUTUBE] Wish me luck. Wish me strength. Wish me Nerve. Wish me the ability to go above my Nerve.
I wish you all the luck in this world, DayHiker!! And you'll see, everything is gonna be great... we usually make a great deal of our coming out, because for us is a life-changing moment. But other people generally don't care so much, as they just get to know one more thing about us. Your friends won't change the way they look at you... they will still see you, no matter what your sexuality is, and they will still love you as they do now.
