Coming out letter to parents - critique welcome!

[Flamingo4083]

Dear Mum and Dad

By the time that you read this I will finally have told you that I am gay. Please don’t be upset that I couldn’t be honest with you before, the truth is that it has taken me a long time to be honest with myself.

Deep down I’ve known this for at many years but I’ve tried to ignore it because I thought it would go away and I could be like everyone else. I never talked to anyone about it because that would mean admitting it to myself. However, in the last six months I slowly started to realise how exhausting and silly this denial was. Its hard to be friends with people that you can’t be honest with and I started to see that I could lie to everyone around me but I couldn’t lie to myself anymore. The pretending and avoiding became a bigger burden than it was worth.

So this summer I finally decided that I had to begin accepting myself. The best thing I ever did was to find the courage to talk to people at xxxx that understood because they had been through the same thing. I never thought that talking about it could make such a difference, but it does. Each time its got a little bit easier. I have just begun to tell my friends at uni in the last few weeks. Each and every one of them, even those that I was worried about telling most have told me that they love me because of me and that it makes absolutely no difference. That is one of the best feelings ever.

I have never really been worried about how you will react because I know that you care about me so much. I’m aware that it will take you time to accept it but I’ve always known that you’ll love me no matter what. I left telling you until last because I know that because you are my parents its going to be a longer process and that the world you grew up in is different to how it is now. People say that for parents its like a sense of loss. You’re probably going to go through all the feelings that I have before you start to accept and realise that in fact you havn’t lost anything at all, instead you’ve gained something – my complete honesty. As I found out, there’s nothing better than talking to someone that completely understands so please please do that when you’re ready.

I want to say I’m sorry for becoming a bit distant with you recently. It was hard not being able to tell you the truth but I had to do things in my own time and when I was ready. Now that I’ve got nothing to hide I hope we can find plenty of time to talk.
I love you lots and lots and lots

[mnguy]

You did a great job on that; very well written. I hope it goes well when you decide to give it to them

[Hidinginalabama]

That was an amazing letter. I hope your parents tack it well and every thing works out great. Keep us updated on how it goes. Best of luck with this and remember your never alone we are all here if you need help.

[Ianthe]

I think the content of your letter is excellent. If grammar is important to you there are a few things you might fix, but they are all pretty nit-picky:

Originally Posted by Flamingo4083

Dear Mum and Dad

By the time that you read this I will finally have told you that I am gay. Please don’t be upset that I couldn’t be honest with you before, the truth is that it has taken me a long time to be honest with myself.

Deep down I’ve known this for at many years but I’ve tried to ignore it because I thought it would go away and I could be like everyone else. I never talked to anyone about it because that would mean admitting it to myself. However, in the last six months I slowly started to realise how exhausting and silly this denial was. It's hard to be friends with people that you can’t be honest with and I started to see that I could lie to everyone around me but I couldn’t lie to myself anymore. The pretending and avoiding became a bigger burden than it was worth.

So this summer I finally decided that I had to begin accepting myself. The best thing I ever did was to find the courage to talk to people at xxxx that understood because they had been through the same thing. I never thought that talking about it could make such a difference, but it does. Each time it's got a little bit easier. I have just begun to tell my friends at uni in the last few weeks. Each and every one of them, even those that I was worried about telling most have told me that they love me because of me and that it makes absolutely no difference. That is one of the best feelings ever.

I have never really been worried about how you will react because I know that you care about me so much. I’m aware that it will take you time to accept it but I’ve always known that you’ll love me no matter what. I left telling you until last because I know that because you are my parents its going to be a longer process and that the world you grew up in was different from how it is now. People say that for parents it's like a sense of loss. You’re probably going to go through all the feelings that I have before you start to accept and realise that in fact you havn’t lost anything at all, instead you’ve gained something – my complete honesty. As I found out, there’s nothing better than talking to someone that completely understands so please please do that when you’re ready.

I want to say I’m sorry for becoming a bit distant with you recently. It was hard not being able to tell you the truth but I had to do things in my own time and when I was ready. Now that I’ve got nothing to hide I hope we can find plenty of time to talk.
I love you lots and lots and lots

"Its" is possessive. When "it's" is a contraction, you have to have the apostrophe.

Additionally to what I marked, I think that in the third paragraph, "each time it's got a little bit easier" should either be "each time it got," or else "each time it's gotten."

But none of that is a big deal unless it's important to you. The letter is great! Good luck!