Being raised in an unaccepting community caused me to not even know what being gay meant. But I knew from very early on in my life that I was not comfortable with the sexuality I was raised to believe was “the norm.” I attended a private christian school for the first 6 years of my education. By fifth grade, I grew accustomed to hearing about how our loving and nurturing God will send me to damnation if I “decide” to be gay. I was a naive ten-year-old child who did not even know what half of those words meant, but it never sat right with me. But I was not going to fight with my teachers, I did not know what being gay was. Out of everything, it was the Scholastic book fair that taught me. There was a graphic novel on a table in the back, only three copies of it sat on the table and they clearly had not been looked at. The book was called The Tea Dragon Society. It was about a girl looking for a calling in life, and she ends up meeting a girl just as lost as her. Over the time of their adventures together, they fall in love. The book ends with them sharing a kiss. That blew my mind. I could do that. I wanted to do that. I did not even fathom that as an option before. I wanted to learn more after school. Being born in the age of the internet was very helpful in my research. With the search “are girls allowed to kiss each other” I learned what all those words meant. This is what people go to hell for. That is what being gay meant. But it was so beautiful in my book. And the girl the main character meets was so pretty. I would have kissed her too. I would choose to go to hell if it meant getting to love her. I kept this realization about myself secret for years. It was painful watching all my peers start to find love while I still believed my love was a sin. It was not until ninth grade I found a community of others who were raised being told that their love is evil. Others who accept whatever punishment might wait for them as long as they get to love who they choose. It took so long to feel confident that I am right and the community that raised me were wrong, my love was not sinful. That is why I write. I do not want children being raised with thoughts like love being a sin and fearing the relationships their hearts crave. I want to teach others that some people believe crazy things that are not true. I I want to give children the stories I needed to when I was their age. Stories that end with two girls falling in love and being proud of it too.