The Kind of Heroes You Find on a Beach

I have a few heroes in my life. My parents, my sisters, my friends, and other people who I look up to and can count on; but this isn't about them. This is about two people, one of who has always been my hero, and the other who I just realized is my hero.

Over the summer my entire family (everyone on my moms side) went on a house boat for ten days. . On a warm night after everyone else had gone to bed I went out to sit on the beach we were docked on with my aunt and uncle. The conversation was the usual joking and telling the stories we had been saving up for a year, at least until my Aunt broached the subject of my sexuality. 

My aunt and I have always been pretty close, we were inseparable growing up and I adored and admired her more than anything. She has always been my hero, so I suppose it should come as no shock that she was one of the first people to figure out that I am gay. However, even though she knew, we never really touched on the subject. That night however, it was different. 

My aunt asked me about my love life and we began discussing women and my feelings on the woman I was with at that time. The way my aunt and uncle talked to me made me feel so normal, which was incredible of them. For the first time I was talking to two people outside of my immediate family and I felt so normal, I could not have asked them for more; but then again I wouldn't be writing this if there wasn't more. 

I don't remember how we got on the topic but my Aunt and Uncle said something to me that I will never ever forget. They both looked me straight in the eye and told me that when I met the right girl and I wanted to bring her home for Christmas they were going to make sure that, that happened. They were going to make it ok for that to happen because I am no different than anyone else in the family. In that moment, on that beach, in the middle of Utah, they unwittingly became my heroes.

I'm not sure they know how much that meant to me, to hear them say that and to know that I am loved, accepted and considered normal. It was so much more than I could have ever asked for. I have never told them how much that night meant to me, or that when I am in despair over the way I or someone else is being treated in regards to their sexuality, that I remember that conversation and it gives me strength. They are my heroes. I hope that those of you reading this can also find some kind of strength in this story or in one of your own. That is, after all, why I am sharing it.