Acceptance for whom one really is is a hard to come by as of lately, especially amongst the student population. In a resent article on yahoo by Beth Greenfield entitled "Gay College Swimmer Comes Out to Teammates in Email" reports on the touching story on how a young college swimmer steps out of the closet to his team in a heart touching email. And to his surprise it went better than he expected.
Matt Korman, a member of the University of Texas's swim team, wrote and sent out an email to all of his fellow team mates. Within this letter Korman goes on to explain how he is gay and is coming out of the closet, "When I was younger I thought I was only curious or it was just a phase for me, but have come to terms that I'm actually gay. (There, I finally said it)". And much to his surprise he received a much better reaction than he expected. His team were completely unfazed by it and went on to say things like "We're totally fine, you're still my friend and my teammate and good for you." Which their reaction greatly boosted Korman's confidence in himself.
Korman goes on to say "For a long time I tried to be someone that I am not. By opening up and talking about it I have learned that this is normal and it's okay to be who I am. I have accepted myself for who I am. There is nothing to be ashamed of. It is not something that I choose. It just is." In many schools across America and quite frankly everywhere else, acceptance is a hard thing to come by. People have to act so fake just to try and blend in and not be noticed by the big crowd so as not to be made fun of. They pretend there something there not all for the sake of not being mocked for it. Even if they are surrounded by more understanding people it's still difficult to be one's self due to social restraints holding everyone back.
I believe that all of this can be stopped if every one can just learn to accept each other and not judge each other like Korman's friends. Acceptance should not be a hard thing to receive from everyone but we have made it that way. Everyone just needs to love everybody.
Korman goes on to say "For a long time I tried to be someone that I am not. By opening up and talking about it I have learned that this is normal and it's okay to be who I am. I have accepted myself for who I am. There is nothing to be ashamed of. It is not something that I choose. It just is." In many schools across America and quite frankly everywhere else, acceptance is a hard thing to come by. People have to act so fake just to try and blend in and not be noticed by the big crowd so as not to be made fun of. They pretend there something there not all for the sake of not being mocked for it. Even if they are surrounded by more understanding people it's still difficult to be one's self due to social restraints holding everyone back.
I believe that all of this can be stopped if every one can just learn to accept each other and not judge each other like Korman's friends. Acceptance should not be a hard thing to receive from everyone but we have made it that way. Everyone just needs to love everybody.
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