This world is full of people who don’t care about other’s feelings. There are empathetic people out there, but rude and ignorant people still plague us. I have lived years in a closet. No, I don’t mean living in an actual closet, I mean I am gay. I stayed in the closet because I was worried about what others would think of me. At some point in life, you get tired of everyone thinking you are someone you are not. For a long time, all I wanted to do was live as my true self. Personally, I became tired of it, so I came out of the closet. Not only did I come out to my family, but also my friends. You might think my life didn’t really change because my identity didn’t change. People at school and my brothers were supportive and didn’t think much of it. However, my mom and dad were not as supportive as I thought they would have been.  My dad thinks that it’s a phase or that I’m just experimenting as if I’m a science experiment. My mom wants nothing to do with it. She thinks that since a lot of my friends are part of the LGBTQ+ community I’m saying I’m gay because of them. Also, she thinks that stress can make you gay or question that you are gay. To this day I think it is funny. How does one turn gay when they are stressed? If you can answer that question I will give you one thousand dollars.