I was there the day James was born. It was in the summer of 2003. The kid just turned into an 18-year-old man last week and decided he wanted to brush his family off and some see his aunt in the big city. I was so touched he drove up here to visit I cancelled my laser appointment, took him to the skate park, the mall and then we went to a hair salon, his choice, and dyed our hair. He wants to be more emo and got a haircut and a wicked cool color I am super in love with at the moment.
We reminisced about the good times we had when I was still his uncle. He asked me a lot of questions about my life and I told him what he needed to know. He proceeded to tell me all about his life. The girl he likes. His job, the car he drives, his music he is working on, and a bunch of other stuff. I started crying and he wondered why I was sad. I said I am not sad I am happy. By the end of the day he saw why I needed to move away from my family and be his aunt. Why even though he had missed his uncle he new I was still in his life but only now, I was happy.
Halfway through the day he commented wow I have never seen you this happy before. He called me his aunt all day. We took selfies together. I even stole a couple extra hugs. Then, the next day out of the blue he sent me a text saying he had a great day, asked how I was doing and said he loved me I am still crying to this very moment.
This is how you’re supposed to treat a person in your family who comes out as trans, gay, bisexual or whatever. The same as you would have before hearing their life changing news, that really shouldn’t have been life changing in the first place but I digress.
WE went shopping in the mall, shared some Wetzel’s Pretzels and did so much that day. By the end of the day I felt more alive than I can remember feeling. I enjoyed watching him do tricks on his skateboard. I listened to his song he recorded on his ipad. I gave him one instruction when he went home, to give his baby sister a hug and tell her I love her. I hope he keeps that promise. Maybe now he will go back to his family as my ambassador and help them see I made the right decision. If nothing else I am so happy to still have such an amazing nephew in my life. I love you kid and I wish nothing but good things for you
Stephanie Bri 