Telling My Story: A Letter to My Younger Self

Dear Brian,
About this time there will be people trying to tell you who you are. Around this time while you are still trying to figure yourself out, people will notice that you aren’t quite like everyone else. Many will say you’re too loud or you’re too flamboyant. But I’m here telling you different to set the record straight. There is nothing wrong with you. There is nothing wrong with being different. Those parts of you that you are so busy hiding, will be the parts of you that you treasure most one day. There is a whole world outside of the one that you’re living and some day you will come and find it. Some day you will be old enough to understand that you had to go through what you’ve been through. There are people still out there right now going through what you’ve been through. Those people need your help. They need your voice. They need for you to take a stand and say look I know what it is that you’re going through. And there will be times when I thought the world was crumbling down around me. But I’m still here louder and stronger than ever. It’s okay that you’ve been through what you’ve been through. Some day you will get the chance to experience life and I promise you… it is so much bigger than what you’re going through now. There is a great big world around you and whenever you are ready it will be waiting for you. You can be whatever you want to be. You can be whoever you want to be in whatever expression you enjoy the most. You did not let the world define you, you did not let the world tell you who to be or how to stand or how to walk and what tone to talk. You chose to be you. Despite what everyone put you through. Despite what they tried to do to you. You chose to rise above it, you chose to heal. There’s something so courageous about that choice. And for that, I will always be proud of you.
Love Brian, Your Future Self.