Inside My Mind

52. My old friend

So, recently I've reconnected with an old friend of mine from high school. And I think we're better friends than we ever were then. Here's why...

For the first time in our entire friendship, we were honest with each other.
When we were in school, we were scared and superficial, and we never dared have the conversation about preferences. And I think that's what weakened our friendship after high school. But, I found him again recently online- and we finally had this talk we needed to so long ago.

I ask him, where we left off, how many years have we not talked? I didn't know where to begin. I estimated it'd been longer than 5 years, and informed him that my mom had died. He said his dad had also died. And then I jumped right in. I said, I bet you didn't know I'm pan/lez. And he says he came it as gay last year. I congratulate him and welcome him to the community.

And then, after pause, he asks me...
"Do you think high school would've been a different experience had we just come out then?"
Instead of waiting all those years? I said maybe. But we weren't ready. He agreed to that. Then we talked about some people we secretly had crushes on in high school. Then we looked up said crushes, just for fun and comparison.

I'm really glad we can be honest with each other now. It makes us better friends. I am happy to have my friend back.