How many times have we thought about being transported back to an earlier point in our lives when things were much simpler and we were truly happy and content? For many, somewhere along the line that contentment and happiness disappeared.
Do you remember the happiness and contentment we felt as children? All we had to do was get up in the morning, go out and play all day and come home to eat and go to bed when we were supposed to. There was also a degree of contentment knowing that neighborhoods, in which we grew up, in many cases, were true extensions of our family. Everyone knew each other and neighbors gave of themselves without hesitation.
As we age and grow older and the world begins to knock us around, and societal pressures change the dynamic of many neighborhoods, that security and comfort we felt as children dissipates. In many instances we become insecure with ourselves and begin to question our ability to cope with day-to-day pressures. We become jaded and forget what truly matters in our lives.
Achieving happiness and contentment is all the more difficult as a LGBTQ individual hiding in the closet or more importantly being a child, and knowing deep inside they were different from the other kids, but not necessarily knowing the root cause of that difference. From a very early age, confusion over not knowing who they truly are begins to take root and causes one to go deeper within themselves; creating a wall through which no one shall pass.
Doing so, combined with societal pressures to conform to an artificial norm established by narrow minded people, deprives a closeted individual of many opportunities to truly experience happiness and to know true self contentment.
Coming out is such a liberating experience. It allows one to experience the joy of knowing who they truly are. Happiness and contentment flows from knowing you are living as the person you were supposed to be. It allows us to recapture some of the happiness that was somehow lost or never fulfilled as children due to the ever-present knowledge that something was different within ourselves.
If you are in the closet I encourage you to come out and experience the wonders of knowing you! Make a decision to begin to fulfill your life’s mission as the person you were meant to be.