IMAGINE Magazine Question for 6/15 - "Hope, Hopeful, or Hopeless?"

[JeffsFort]

As summer starts creeping closer, we want to hear from you about those younger years when you were still figuring out that you were gay, or at least beginning to suspect that your brain had been quietly filing certain boys under “important research.” ::grin:: Did summer mean looking forward to seeing a crush at camp, the pool, the beach, the neighborhood, or wherever your heart had decided to make things unnecessarily complicated? Or were your big summer plans less about romance and more about hoping nobody noticed too much while you continued the exhausting Olympic sport of “acting totally normal”? Many of us are gold medalists unfortunately

There are no wrong answers here. Maybe your summer memories are sweet, awkward, hilarious, stressful, confusing, or all of the above before lunch. For many of us, there still aren’t neat conclusions tied up with a sunny little bow. Of course life would have been so much easier if it were.

So for this month's question, we ask: when you were young and summer was on the way, were you hoping for a crush-filled adventure, were trying to hide who you were deep down, or somehow doing both at the exact same time? 💜

[Page Scrawler]

Summer was something that I always had mixed emotions about. Living on an isolated rural road, it meant that I had no other kids to act as a "buffer" between myself and my family at home. No summer romance was in my cards. No cute boys I could crush on, sadly.

On the other hand, it meant that I could visit my friend, Jessie, at his house pretty much whenever I wanted. As long as it didn't rain, but sometimes even then, I'd still walk the mile-and-a-half down the road to his house.

As far as I can recall, Jessie was the first person I came out to, and the first to support me unconditionally.