I thought maybe I'd start this one with some plain speak before I settle into a more comfortable gait of reflective rumination.
I only have a mind for literary prose, so I'm trying to change that. I can't articulate myself in a language more real, in manners more familiar and colloquial. My brain is poisoned by pontifications and poetry, and as the sickness starts to settle in for another season, I start to feel the claw of fatalism sink it's talons deeper into my brain.
I wish I could think like a real person. I think Tiffany Pollard is the most beautiful woman on Earth. Why can't I be more like her?
I guess I've learned some ugly things about myself through the phyrric blessings of the Lord. God gave me what I thought I wanted, and I realized how little I truly know.
I gave a rousing speech to a congregation of captive comrades and was congratulated, lauded, and admired... and it made me feel sick. I don't know what to feel about it. I think I'm not used to being openly admired and praised by my peers. I'm used to being ignored, so... it felt like a setup. These talented and bright (and let me just say gorgeous) people coming up to me to tell me they think I'm smart and kind and stuff... I've never been socially embraced like this before in my life, and it's making me cry. I never realized how alien I've felt my entire life until I was accepted by others for using my gifts. That has just... never happened to me before.
It was so moving that I became terrified. I was truthful in telling my new friends that I had to go home to do some laundry, but after getting done with taking it out the bags I found myself overwhelmed.
I had to sit down for a bit before I went back into the world... but I hadn't realized how much time had passed. I remember they asked me if I could go to the coffeehouse across the street, and I told them, "I'll see if I can after I'm done with these errands."
Now that wasn't a dishonest answer, but I just feel like... should I have just put my clothes in the car aside for a bit, and seize this chance to fight my fears?
In my mind I thought I might be doing the wrong thing, to put off bringing my twins clothes home so long. I got back to my apartment and I saw they did the dishes I said I'd do but took too long on, and I felt horrible. I called them to apologize and they seemed confused... because I didn't do anything wrong.
I think I've spoken about this before, right, but I've had people tell me they think I have an anxiety disorder or some kind of OCD, but frankly I've not liked to self diagnose or medicalize issues of my personhood that can be changed through communication and a change of circumstances.
This feeling of fear, in being confronted with the unfamiliar scenario of praise, is something I feel sometimes when I hang out with some of my most dear friends every week.
They invite me to their house, and I get to socialize and unwind, sometimes we watch TV and get food, and I tell them about my day. With them I get to be my full self, right? I can be silly! I show them all my impressions and voices I can do, sometimes I can show them my dance moves, and I can listen to all their jokes and stories. And I never tell them how much it means to me to have friends who will text me first! Do you what that's like? They ask me if I want to hang out, and every time I get that text I feel so overwhelmed that I almost want to throw up because... frankly, I have never had that before. It's very beautiful that an entire household of people love my presence enough to want to have me over often like that, like...
I don't want to be melodramatic, so I'll abridge some details of my childhood. I don't wanna bitch and moan about people who probably don't even think about me anymore. That's disrespectful to them, they moved on, I should too.
I'll just leave it at this reality where I'd gotten used to being nobody's favorite. Nobody thinks about me when I'm not there, y'know?
In the last few years since coming out I've finally become my real self, and it's like suddenly people think I'm special and that I'm a person worth remembering, and like... I've not adjusted to that. I've known that I'm great and I'm talented and brilliant and special for my whole life, but I got used to believing that nobody is ever gonna care about me. So to know that's not true feels like a warm ray of providence from the Lord.
And that golden light in a sea of darkness only draws attention the the void that has surrounded me for so many years. Like suddenly it clicks for me just how lonely and isolated and suicidal I've been for my entire life. When I was a little kid I didn't mask, and I was ostracized for that. When I was a teenager I did mask a fair amount, and while it helped me make a good smattering of casual friendships, I only developed deeper bonds with a very small few people, because frankly? While I was in the closet? I did not trust or feel that I would be safe revealing my most vulnerable self to anybody.
College was especially difficult because the first two years were Covid, so there's was basically nothing for me on campus until I was already a Junior. I was lucky to meet some wonderful characters that I still love today, like Spider-Man and Gel Pen (that's what we're calling her).
As a Junior I started branching out and making some friends in classes here and there, but the only sustained friendships I have from college are mostly from my Public Health classes. That includes pretty much just Molar Matriarch (she does dentistry).
I'm getting tired... this therapy session has been helpful in many ways.
I think... I will try to participate as much as I can as an activist... and I'll be at actions... and if they like me, that's a treat. But the work will come first. I want to help people... I need to. It's my purpose in life.