Yes, I Am

Chapter Fifteen.

It doesn't matter what you've gone to see; it matters what you actually see. Some people see the statue of Aphrodite and complain about indecency of the past sculptors. Others look at a waste disposal site and see art. A painting is only as beautiful as the onlooker's mind is.
The fact of the matter is that we could have gone to Bangladesh and still had the same amount of fun. Because where we were didn't matter; what mattered was who we were with. Ten years into the future when I would look back at the pictures, I would look at our goofy smiles and silly expressions, not the Statue of Liberty in the background. I would remember the midnight kiss with the citylights stretching till the horizon, not the fact that it was on top of the Empire State Building. I would remember how we forgot to take our power bank and the batteries of our phones ran out when we were separated, in the middle of our call and we freaked the fuck out even though it wasn't like the other person would get eaten by a crocodile if we weren't watching like a hawk the whole time.
I guess I was one of the rare lucky ones to have found a muse, someone who I could be vulnerable with but someone who also made me feel stronger. Everyday was a new checkpoint for us, a new step forward. Whether it was kissing his cheek in public or just touching his hand at dinner, it was progress. If someone had told me a few months ago that I would be cuddling with a guy, I would probably have told you to get sober and then talk to me.
But that was the thing. It all seemed so normal now, being with him. For those two days, I completely forgot the fact that he was a guy and I was a guy and this was supposed to be 'unnatural'. It was tough to understand why someone would hate love so much, why gender mattered more than feelings and happiness, why humans were so unaccepting of something so pure and innocent and beautiful. There were still some countries where they threw same sex couples in prison. And what was their crime? Being born with the same genders? Falling in love? Being themselves?
It sucks.
We talk about a modern world. If we can't even be non-judgemental about natural tendencies, we can forget about progress. Because the world won't move forward by spreading hate and it certainly won't move forward by criminalising everything we don't understand.

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Author's note: Because I can be deep sometimes. *shrug* A new (and bigger) chapter coming up soon. Please vote and comment if you like it! All feedback is welcome. Thank you. :)