what do they mean to you? to me ,they mean absolutely zero. For the first few years of my life I was raised by the modern equivalent of a Shawnee Indian chief. The next several years I was raised by an ex-federal convict. My mother had me at eighteen. I was raised dirt floor poor for most of my life. I was raised in the smallest of towns by atheist parents . I was made by my grandmother to become a Pentecostal Christian. This is the life that was played out for me. There are so many expectations of me. Here I am years later. I have a well paying job, and a future in the military. I've already been the best man at my best friends wedding. I've loved more than one woman to the point it left me broken and physically scarred. I've stared death in the face and gave her a kiss. I've stared the rest of my forever's in the face and kissed her too. I've saved more than one life. I've helped end more than one. I'm now the modern equivalent of a Shawnee medicine man. Religion isn't anything to me any more other than a very humorous joke. I'm gayer than my boyfriend andย I occasionally teenage girl harder than my girlfriend. I hate myself almost as much as I love a very particular pumpkin girl lover boy. I've battled depression and addiction. I've very personally battled suicide itself. For more than just myself. Expectations. fuck that shit. Its not what they want you to be , or what they tell you to be. but rather who you CHOOSE to be that makes you what you are