No, It's okay...They're with me!

You know… Sometimes I forget.  I forget my purse, my keys, the last known location of my left flip-flop and occasionally, where the hell I am going once I'm in the car.  But I also forget just how lucky I am to have the family that I do. 

I’ve been gay for a while now. And if you ask my oldest sister, she’d probably give you the exact date she figured it out.  I’ve told said sister, on numerous occasions, that I wished she’d have told me so maybe I could have avoided a few tragic and life altering experiences.  I guess that’s the point of the term ‘life altering’.  While it does make me wonder where I’d be had those things not happened, they aren’t something I can change or erase.  I can only move past them and become stronger, meaner and, surprisingly enough, a happier person for it.  Happy might be a bit of a stretch if looked at in the short term- I certainly was not a happy girl for a great majority of my adolescence.  But in the long-term, happy is the right word. 

I am happy because my parents, sisters, in-laws and niece LOVE me, unconditionally.  The naysayers may say, well… nay! But I say, “Shut your mouth and listen- I'm still speaking.” The one thing that I learned from my family over the years is that, like it or not you’re stuck with them.  But the lessons I’ve learned from other families are the ones that make me remember what I so easily forget.  While there may be similarities between theirs and mine, they are hardly the same.  For example, some families hold fast to 5 sad truths:

·         Do not speak of our differences

·         Do not accept those who are different

·         Ignore it and it will go away

·         If we shun it and degrade it, it will change

·         Family can be forgotten or replaced

Honestly, I'm not sure when mine changed.  I can remember a childhood filled with more than one of those truths- but NEVER the last one. Family is the most important thing in the world. It took me many years and one big ass fight with my Dad, to make me truly see it.  Coming out to him was the scariest thing I’d ever done (of course that was before my indoor skydiving experience).  But it was the best and greatest testament to the strength and importance of our family tenet.  I am very lucky.  I have an amazing family that loves the hell out of this lil rainbow sheep.  I only wish that those who aren’t as lucky, one day find the same love with their own family or even new one. Because everyone deserves to feel how amazing it is to be accepted by the ones they love.  

It’s a theme that can be seen in my writings and one I truly enjoy sharing with my readers.  After all, I write from experience and I think everyone should get an opportunity to see what I deal with!

To my family reading this (which is undoubtedly all of them), I love you, you crazy bunch of nuts! Now, where’d I put my keys?

Smooches,
TinaMichele

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