Self Care: Labels
labels
At first, identifying as “straight, shaken not stirred”, I felt a little odd claiming a place in the queer community. If Boyfriend and I broke up, I felt that I would lose this community – and after a while had passed, I felt that I had taken enough shit and thought and learned enough to have “earned” my place. I also felt - in my bones, in my heart, in my soul - that I was queer.
I was different – I was queer.Or was I?
Taking on the label of anything other than straight, to me, felt uncomfortable because I had always seen sexuality as fairly label-centric. None of the labels other than plain old “heterosexual” and “straight” seemed to connect with me.
So, after a little while of struggling to find a label that “fit”, out of the ones that already existed, I realized that sometimes you just have to say “fuck it”.
Sometimes you have to make your own labels.
Sometimes you make the box, or the circle, or the whatever, before you check it off.
Sometimes you check “Other”, and then you fill in the line next to it explaining what you mean.
I have gradually grown to actually feel most comfortable when identifying as queer, but if I had pushed myself into that, I don’t think I’d have ever really been comfortable with it.
Take your time.
No matter how strange you think your label is, if it fits you?
Wear that son of a bitch with pride.
And if it changes?
Well, that’s alright too.
As long as you are comfortable with yourself, your work is done.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to message me or ask.
