Came Out to Somebody in the Workplace

Okay, so I'm an undergrad doing unpaid research with a graduate student in a research lab, but for all intents and purposes, I'll consider it my workplace. This story is in a way, two coming outs at once.

My story will begin, on a less related scene, about 10 weeks ago. One day I decided that I wanted to attend my chemistry TA's office hours, just to get to know him. I was the only student there, and we chatted for a good amount of time. The next week I go to his office hours again, and we were again alone. The next weeks, however, other student began to come. I got a bit disappointed. So fastforward like 10 weeks, and I began to develop a crush on my TA. We're about at the end of the quarter, so I contemplated telling him that I like him and would like to be friends--or something else, but I had to figure out how he felt.

I began with an indirect approach: I made a post on a website that caters to students at my school for "missed connections." I think it's reminiscent to a service on craigslist, but whatever I don't know. I just made a post saying that I have enjoyed whatever time he and I have spent together, despite him being a graduate student, and me an undergrad. The theory behind the website was that, by chance, the person you're talking about will see your post. It's a way to try to reconnect with someone you don't know how to contact, or would be too shy to directly talk to.

By luck, someone who works with my crush read the post, and commented on it. We had a couple back and forth comments, with the middleman saying that he'd tell my crush, but that probably never happened.

Instead, last week, I told my crush that there's a post about him on some website, and that I "kinda" left it there. So I gave him the link. I didn't get a response until 2 days later, and the response was left on a quiz that he returned to me. On it, he wrote "Though I'm flattered, no thanks."

So that's that for the first part of the story.
That day I kinda walked back to my lab in somewhat sad rejection.
I had already been contemplating coming out to someone in my workplace because I felt so bottled up inside. Ironically, I decided to tell someone who I did not originally plan to tell.

When I was alone in a room with a postdoc in the lab, I walked near his desk, just thinking of a way I could come out. He asked me what's up, and I just stumbled/mumbled around a bit. I opened up by asking if he'd ever heard of the website I used for missed connections. He didn't, but I directed him to go to that website, click on the "guyspottedguy" section, and look for the post I had left. I then continued to tell him about the quiz I got back, and I showed him that piece of paper.

So thereafter, we began chatting, and occasionally got interrupted by people entering the room. We talked a bit about everything. He reassured me that the lab environment is very friendly (except for one rather outspoken homophobic graduate student).

I am very happy that I told somebody in the workplace :icon_bigg and I think I've found a new best friend. :king:

 

Thanks, all for the replies.

@Hidinginalabama - Your coming out story at the work actually inspired me to reach out to someone at work (even though it took over a month)!