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Life in the first days after coming out

Discussion in 'LGBT Later in Life' started by crazydog15, Jun 29, 2016.

  1. crazydog15

    Regular Member

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    It feels.... completely different and yet exactly the same. It's so weird. I still have to go to work. I still have to feed the dog. I still have to cook dinner. The mundane stuff of life just hasn't changed. But, aside from work, my family now knows that I'm gay. I'm making friends with a couple of openly gay people who live in my town. My gay friends talk about my being gay as if it's no big deal. This isn't a bad thing--it's just very foreign to me.

    Every day that I do some completely normal thing post-coming out, I feel like I'm losing my white-knuckle grip on my past. All that anger and resentment and so on.... it's not that they're gone, but now I'm forming new memories to dilute them.

    I'm not sure what my biggest challenge is right now. No clue. Living "authentically"? I don't really know what that means at the moment. Maybe I will one day.

    Anyway, time to make breakfast.
     
  2. LostInDaydreams

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    It's good to read such a positive post. :slight_smile:

    I know that "completely different and yet exactly the same" feeling. I felt that way whilst pregnant, and it is weird.
     
  3. RosePetals76

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    I get it, crazydog. I felt the same way. Like to me so much had changed, yet nothing had at the same time. And it was weird. It took me a while to feel like instead of my whole life changing I'd just opened up about a small piece of it. Things are starting to feel normal again now.
     
  4. greatwhale

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    As you said, everything has changed, and yet nothing has changed...except that you will remember for the rest of your life just exactly how you are feeling in these first few days.

    I know I do, I remember the music that played at the time, that new sound from my computer when I started a new job around the same time, announcing that I have e-mail, the apple-blossoms on the tree outside my office window...all of these things bring me back to this seismic shift in my life.

    Enjoy the feeling! Every now and again, I get that wonderful feeling in the pit of my stomach: the one that tells me I am on the right path.