Hi all, First post here at EC. I would first like to give a big Thank You for this site. I had started thinking about reaching out to other gay people more than I had for many years (I do have one close gay friend) after watching a bunch of gay movies online (I used two recent sites, the 90 and 100 Best Gay Movies), and started looking for something online (I'm very shy in person). So the first thing I thought of was to search for Gay Chat - WRONG! Not what I wanted. I'm not into hooking up, or even dating. Even as a kid I enjoyed being on my own, and that hasn't changed. I just want some friends I feel comfortable with. I never told people at work nor those that shared my many hobbies (model railroading, flight simulator, etc.) since it really didn't matter (I haven't been involved in the gay community or relationships since I moved to Philly in 1984). But now that I'm retired, I suddenly decided that I wanted to be more honest to everyone I cared about, including ex-work friends and anyone that asks. I realize being on my own and retired makes that very easy, but hey, better late than never. It went very well, and that is a story that I may post on the Coming Out Stories forum. Back to the original idea for this post. After realizing that gay chat, etc., was not what I was looking for, I thought "I guess there's no place for people like me to go", and I went to sleep. I woke up this morning thinking that perhaps there was something other than chat I could try. I run a flight simulator web forum and we have a wonderful and supportive community there and BOOM! Could there be a web forum for gay people? A web search later, and I've spent the last 3 hours here at EC looking at people posting everything from their traumatic experiences when they try to be themselves to funny comments when coming out (not done with that thread yet - 55 pages!) . From all the support they received here, I said to myself "Ah, I found it". So here I am, writing far more than I usually do, and not sure why I'm doing it. All I can say is that it feels good doing it. Hello.
Hello there TomisOut, I'm glad you are enjoying EC, and you decided to join. You've got some quite interesting hobbies. Here in germany there is a huge community into model railroading, with their own magazines and so on. I'm not into that, but I do enjoy looking at the models, and sometimes I even feel trying myself. Looking forward to get to know you. You seem like an interesting guy. Feel free to be yourself here, as you've seen this is a safe place, you can really ask whatever and folks will be glad to offer you advice (in some cases very good advice). Have fun, and enjoy.
Welcome to EC TomisOut. We all like to chat here (but not in the way you've previously experienced ). It's a great place where we try to give and receive support, talk about the issues that affect us all in different ways and generally try to make life a little better for each other. The forum staff keep it nice and safe too. Great to have you here and hope you will stick around.
Hello. I'm glad you found EC. I guess, from mine, albait, short existence here, that this is probably THE place to be. Good luck!
