Tonight was pretty great.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

A bunch of friends and I went to this fireworks show with several thousand people in attendance, and we had a lot of fun bonding time, which is rare nowadays with everyone’s busy schedules. I can’t remember the last time I just kicked back and relaxed with my friends, and had such meaningful, in-depth conversation.

We waited about 3 hours for the actual fireworks show; playing cards, talking, etc. When the show began, I completely MISSED IT becaaaaaaause…

My friend came out to me.

Well, indirectly. He’s great, and we haven’t been the closest of friends, but I got to talk with him some this evening, and I was subconsciously flirting with him, I suppose. Around about that time, he and another friend of mine went for a walk… well, she came back a few minutes later and told me I had to talk to him because he just came out to her, and she wasn’t sure what to say, but she suggested he talk to me.

Anyway, long story short, I missed a 20 minute firework show, but I think I really helped him out with his coming-out, to himself, anyway. Only three people (me, him, and my other friend) know, and he seems to be happy with that, which is great. I feel so great having helped him out with this. I remember how hard it was for me, in the beginning, and the look in his eyes when he realized I really understood was great. It was very Hallmarkish in nature, like some kind of movie. There were fireworks going off all around us, it was a very emotional moment, and … ahhhh, yes, very great, indeed.

I’m pretty awestruck by all of it, but yeah. Great, great night. I think we’re going to become closer this year.

</mundane, pointless>

2

Doesn’t sound all that mundane or pointless to me. It sounds pretty cool. Seeing somebody get over his fear and finally getting comfortable with himself, and being there to help.

One of the best for me was when I sent an e-mail to my college roommate telling him I’d decided to come out of the closet. We hardly ever talk anymore, but I still consider him one of my best friends. I was kind of nervous about his reaction, since we never talked about romantic or relationship stuff anyway, and since he’s Catholic I assumed he’d have a problem with it. He responded with a really long e-mail about all the stuff he’d been doing since we talked the last time, vacations, movie and book recommendations, etc. At the very end, he wrote “I’d started to write a meaningful After-School Special type thing about your coming out. But then I realized that the first thing I thought when I saw your e-mail was, ‘Cool! I got an e-mail from Chuck!’ And that pretty much sums it up.”

One thing, though: if your friend posts on message boards, you might want to remind him that he’s not obligated to respond to every gay thread.