Since I was little, all I ever wanted was a group of people I could call my best friends.
Growing up, lets just say I didn't have it easy. I was bullied for years, it wasn't until sophomore year of high school that people started to treat me like a human being. I made friends but they were never the kind I had always dreamed about. I wanted the friends that would show up randomly at my house to hang out, the kind that could chill with my parents, the kind I could tell my deepest fears and wildest dreams too, the kind that would have my back no matter what.
Two years ago, I made the decision to move from New Jersey to Tampa Bay, Florida. It is here in Tampa where I had really and truly come into my own. I have experienced so much, both good and bad, and I survived it all thanks to the people I can honestly call my friends. Actually they are more than that, they are my family.
These are the people that have stuck by my side through everything. They gave me nothing but love and support when I came out as a gay man. They helped me have the courage to come out to my family, they were my shoulders to cry on when a boy broke my heart, they were my rocks when I felt I had nowhere to go, they are my home and my heart.
As hard as this past year has been, I would do it all over again, for I am the happiest I have ever been, I feel great and confident and that's all thanks to being around these positive, supportive people. I feel like I have built something, I have built my life. I am finally in a good place and I have never felt more like myself than I do right now and I will never let anyone take this feeling away from me.
So to my dear friends, you know who you are, I thank you, thank you for loving the real me. Our wine nights, late night talks, laughing at green lemon, getting ready to go out while jamming out to Selena Gomez, partying it up in ybor city, none of these things will ever get old for me. The memories we share will live on forever, like the time I got my car towed in Miami while on spring break and had to walk 5 miles to retrieve it just for it to later break down while on the way back home. The time I blacked out in Orlando and woke up on the sidewalk, the time me and my buddy hopped on stage at a club and pretended we were magic mike strippers and got money stuffed down our pants, or the time my friends and I are were drunk and fell asleep in the parking garage of our apartment building, oh and lets not forget about the time in Panama City when my friend got chased down the street naked by a girls crazy ex boyfriend and his cronies or the time my friends pissed on my foot while drunk at a Big Sean concert.
I could go on and on, but then I'd have to write a book. This year was my year, "What I have learned is so vital, more than just survival, this is my revival." So if you have the kind of friends I have, take the time to tell them you love them, do so for all of the wonderful people in your life. Just remember "one day it all will click, you will realize whats important and what is not. you will learn to care less about what others think of you and more about what you think of yourself. you will realize how far you have come and you'll remember when you thought things were such a mess that they would never recover. And then you will smile. you'll smile because you will be truly proud of yourself and the person you have fought to become." You will also look around at the people both good and bad who helped you get where you are and you will thank them.
