So either I'm all sleeped up and convinced that posting into the void will give one person a little hope for their day or I'm so full of cringe that I can't help but leak it out. I'm okay with both.

Like I didn't expect one day I would wake up from a nap next to a loving boyfriend to write a dime-a-dozen hopecore post on anti-Twitter. Waking up grateful and posting about it? Cringe.

Some of us have to wait to be honest about ourselves for our own safety, but in hindsight I would have started looking for community or trying to build it myself earlier. Better late than never, but when you grow up in PVP, you don't realize how badly you need a guild.

There are genuinely kind people in rural America, but some days it was impossible for them to compete with others who yell slurs on the street and throw drinks at you.

Growing up gay in a rural, conservative area felt like spawning in a PVP zone.