I recently came out as someone who likes girls (as much as anyone knows, someone who exclusively likes girls) on a post on Instagram (an account my closer friends follow but anyone in school can find me), and changed my description on there. That more or less counts to me as being out. I didn't really make it a huge deal, just casually wrote about it in a sentence or two on a post and told some of my closer friends to check it out. It went from me being almost completely in the closet about my sexuality to pretty much being fully out there. (A fairly big leap) As much as it is liberating for me not to have to hide this part of my identity anymore, it has also been terrifying. And I've had mostly positive responses from people, though not completely, and one or two of my more talkative friends have been talking about it with some others from what I've heard. Question is, is it normal for it to be so scary, in a way? At this point at least. I'm used to the fear before coming out, but now I feel like I've pushed myself completely into the open about this and I still feel the instinct of hiding it, being scared of it, and nervous about how others would respond. It seems almost surreal, and I still find it a bit hard to talk about it. I guess I'm not really asking for any direct advice of what to do, maybe if anyone has any similar experiences or insight? I definitely still feel pretty vulnerable and taken aback by my own gut courage to do this, though I don't regret it.
Congratulations on coming out! That's a big step. Coming out to almost everyone is huge. It is natural that for you to be a bit scared, intimidated or paranoid. Well yeah I was in a similar predicament. I first came out to my best friend. But accidentally, I was outed to my little group of friends, I panicked. I was so scared, I cut myself off from the world. Shut my phone off, and did'nt leave the house for a few days..... But fortunately, everyone has been very supportive and accepting, barring one exception. That too, turned out well in time. Again, congratulations
I told a bunch of people for the first time, and now I still have that fear. Part of it for me is fear of the next step. The next people, the next step out of the closet.
Thank you both for the replies! I've been feeling a bit better now, and I don't regret coming out, if not quite drastically and all at once. Best of luck to both of you too in your future coming out and process (*hug*)