Yesterday, I woke up to a text from my friend where she sent me this screenshot with a text captioning, "Next article."

Although this response wasn't surprising, it enraged me. I had grown up with this boy. We've lived in an accepting, diverse, northern suburb of Chicago, so it's not like we were living with a Confederate flag hung up in our house in a not-so-tolerant town like Charleston, South Carolina. I thought the people in my town were better than that.

Now, I'm not going to lie, I remember when rumors of Bruce Jenner first started emerging a few years ago while I was still in high school about how he was transitioning into a woman just because his hair was long and he liked plastic surgery. So what? The dude just doesn't want to look 60 anymore and probably thinks long hair is what's "in" now.

Then, I found out he and Kris were getting a divorce. Again, I didn't think anything of it. Eh, she's the Queen of Crazy, he had to have cracked at some point.

Finally, one day I opened my Facebook app to get my social media fix, naturally, and my mouth dropped when I saw articles being shared left and right from my Facebook friends saying, "Bruce Jenner Opens Up About Transitioning Into a Woman." And at first, I was hesitant, because I have some Facebook friends who aren't the wisest chapter of the Bible, and share some pretty silly articles from not so credible "news" sites. But as I started scrolling down more and more, I saw some articles were from E!, ABC News, Cosmo, Harper's Bazaar; everything started to fall into place.

S**t... I thought, my heart instantly dropping. This whole time I didn't feel any real sympathy for Bruce. I just thought it was like any old Hollywood has-been, trying to get some more limelight and look younger.

Not long after, the Diane Sawyer interview with Bruce came on, and betcha bottom dollar I had my mom DVR it while I was at school that weekday (since I didn't have a TV in my dorm room, sigh. #FirstWorldProbz), and during the weekend, I came home and watched the two-hour special in its entirety. Although I had been a semi fan of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," seeing this interview with a Bruce that wasn't really ever revealed on the hit reality show got me to tear up like a little baby.

The interview, recorded in a janky kind of way below, followed Bruce from when he was born, all through his many marriages and triumphant Olympic winnings, up until 2015.

Some parts of this interview took me to a flashback of a time I was in a class I took this semester, Women and Society. In that class, we had watched a "20/20" episode of a few children who felt that they were boys/girls trapped in a girls/boys body. It made sense to me. This was an actual thing that happened to people all over the world. This wasn't a joke. So, when I heard that Bruce Jenner had been going through the same thing, I didn't take it as such. He had been glorified globally because of his athleticism and resembled a hero to many. He was held up to that standard, but had been hiding a secret for as long as he could remember: He was a woman on the inside.

Now, I don't know why that's so hard for some people to hear. Besides the fact that maybe their family instilled some heavy-duty Christian values on them when they were young, but c'mon; this is America. This is 2015. These things are happening not just in America, but in places you probably didn't even know existed. Just because Caitlyn Jenner was born "Bruce," doesn't mean she has to stay that way forever. I'm not even going to get into the whole religion thing, but it's not anyone's fault that Bruce wanted to become Caitlyn. She couldn't help it! It was who she was, and who the world deserved to know who she was.

Now, getting on the topic of the ESPYs. Yes, Caitlyn received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, and despite some people's opinions, rightfully so. In such a short amount of time (less than a damn year), this woman was able to open up about her story, transition almost entirely into a woman if I'm not mistaken, and is already spreading global awareness about people like her. If that's not courage, I don't know what is. Opening up to a society where it's either be perfect or get out, Caitlyn was able to finally say, "No, I've had enough. I can do this." And because of that, maybe a boy you know who isn't comfortable in his own skin yet because he can't figure out why other boys in his grade think it's weird that he likes nail polish and not basketball can maybe have a better outlook on life. Instead of struggling every day, feeling like he's so alone and no one understands him or who he is, he now has a role model that says, "It's okay to be who you are." So yeah, I know there's a debate about how a man who beat cancer should've won instead of her, but heroes come in all shapes, sizes, and genders. And the fact that we're honoring Caitlyn for her courageous acts tells me that maybe our society will be okay after all. And that people like John some day will get it. I can only hope.