As I sit and reflect upon the few years I spent in high school, I have slowly come to realize that each year, there has been a distinct difference in my identity. I have been through it all. While there has been many bumps in the road, I have paved my way as a person and used my individuality to set myself apart from the droning standards of heteronormativity enforced at the high school level.
The toughest time of my high school career was my freshman year. At this time, I was still struggling with my sexuality and gender identity, and the lack of progressive ideologies reaching the mainstream eye did not help my standing with the general populace, nor with my family. This time in my life was especially rough, due to receiving relentess abuse every day, by not only other men around my high school, but from my siblings as well. Being a LGBTQA+ student and struggling with accepting yourself is hard enough, let alone when everyone around is making you feel as if you do not belong. This abuse led me to keep to myself for the majority of my first year of high school, and while many people might view this as a sad time, I like to think of it as a low starting point. Every event in my life has pushed me farther away from this low point and for that, I am eternally grateful.
The next year of high school was far more forgiving, I had reunited with some friends I had known in my middle school years, and after a long summer of reflection I decided to take my passions into my own hands and join the Liberty High School theater department. Having been the only "Durski" in my high school, I felt relieved, as if I no longer had an idol or a person I was told to mimic, and was finally free to be myself. This was the year I began to open up about my sexuality, and I received vast amounts of support from my parents, friends, and even many faculty at the high school. This was my year of growth and of realization, and without this I'm not sure where I would be today.
Junior year was the year of development and the goals I had set for myself were finally shifting from ideology into my reality. I had scored a role as a lead in my high school musical, a female character to be played by a man in drag. A passion of mine was going to not only be done for myself, but I would be able to share my passion and love for art with the community. I received an overwhelming shower of praise for this role, and snagged an award for "Best Actor in a Musical" in my school. I was going strong in our student government as the student body historian, and began to pave the way to begin a Gay-Straight Alliance within our school community. I felt so much support, and I wanted to give back and help others find their strength, as others have helped me find my own.
Finally, my senior year was the year of leading, the year where I truly became who I am today, and the person I hope to remain for the remainder of my life. I became the President of the Liberty High School GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) and was helping other queer students educate themselves and develop their own character. I was a member of the Nevada State Board of Theatre, helping to run the theater programs throughout the state, and spreading my positivity to students who may not have had that, had I not. Again, I was a member of the student government, helping to lead and plan school-wide events, and helping to encourage a positive, progressive agenda within the government. I wanted to be that voice, that person people could look at and think, "There is someone who is confident in themselves." I am so happy to see the change between a couple of years. To think I went from being a kid afraid of being myself to opening up to hundreds of people about my sexuality.
