Could you tell me a time you felt acceptance?

In high school it’s safe to say I didn’t have a great experience. I was struggling with a lot of personal things not to mention the usual things ever teenage girl feels, body issues, high school drama and studying for exams. On top of all this there was always the feeling that I wasn’t aloud to be myself. I always thought my music taste was weird, I didn’t want to dress like all the other girls, I cared a lot about the environment and the arts and my studies which everyone just seems to find uncool and boring. I used to worry every waking moment what people were thinking about me or saying behind my back, it probably didn’t help that I had a tricky dynamic with my friendship group. So, when around the age of fourteen questions about my sexuality started to pop into my head, I seriously struggled to come to terms with any of the new feelings and thoughts I was experiencing. No one would accept me. No one would be my friend anymore. I’d be even more alone than I already was. These were just some of the fears that were racing through my head anytime one of the feelings would rear their head. So the only option to me at the time was to repress all those feelings and thoughts. Ignore them as long as I could cause they would eventually go away. For a while this worked, I was too busy dealing with all the other pain I had that I didn’t even notice it bubbling under the surface. So when I eventually made the decision to leave high school after experiencing a life changing break down in the girl bathrooms, the relief was unbelievable. I then made another brilliant decision and went on to study musical theatre at the age of sixteen. To begin with I was extremely nervous and my nerves came across quite hostile. I didn’t know what to expect, who would be there? What would they think of me? I was pretty terrified, I couldn’t go through another two years of feeling like a complete outside. But after a few weeks at the campus with my new class mates I couldn’t help but feel utterly ecstatic that I could be who I was! I could love what I was doing, work hard, listen to my music, all the little quirky and nerdy things that made me who I was were completely ok. It wasn’t perfect nothing is! But this was completely different to what I knew and to the behaviours I had learnt in high school. Having so much acceptance around me for these little things aloud me to come to terms with my sexuality and really begin thinking about who I was and the people I had met really helped me. They were all different in personality and there were plenty members of the LGBTQI+ community and allies too. Sexuality was openly talked about but it wasn’t always a serious conversation sometimes it was just discussing dates and exes but I had never been around that before. This gave me a positive association for the group rather than the isolation and bigotry views I’d known from the past. Because of their acceptance I came to the conclusion after years of debate and thought that I was a happy Pansexual women. Because of their friendship I felt strong enough to tell them all and because of their support I proudly came out to other members of my friends and family. Acceptance is one of the most basic things a person can give to someone else and I’m so happy that those I love accept me and more importantly that I now accept myself.