The Crystal Trees

Frida eventually passed on and Jace was left alone in his parents house. Jace visited their graves every week to put flowers on them, and one day he found a very strange, very spectacular happening when he went to visit.

Jace usually went to the burial site during the day, but this time he decided to go at night. He noticed a soft glow from the base of the ground near the graves. He inspected them, Crystals were growing from the ground where his parents now rested! Over the next few weeks the crystals grew into a beautiful tree-like formation.

One night when Jace went top visit their graves he found the trees glowing different colors and changing formations. He knew now that these crystals somehow possessed the spirits of his dead parents, and they were showing him they were still watching him, caring for him. The Crystal Trees are still found in the graveyard where his family and Jace himself now rests, every time a family member is put to rest a new tree is born and imbued with a different glowing color... a rich and unique family history brought about by the magic of Lunar Lakes.

A Love Story

This is Frida. She is the resident of a strange moon where a colonizing spaceship crashed long ago. Frida has lived a tough life, she harbors resentment for the way her parents abandoned her as a child, leaving her on a random doorstep. She always was skeptical of people, their intentions and their emotions...that is until she met David.

Frida met David one night at the local bar, she didn't think much of him at the time but they later made a deeper connection through a much more sinister form...their ties to the local crime syndicate. Frida and David began working together as accomplices in the syndicate, and with each new heist fell deeper in love. 

Frida didn't know it yet, but she was pregnant with Davids child. When she discovered that she was pregnant she had mixed emotions...would this make her a target in the syndicate? Would she always have to be on her guard or could she leave her life of crime to become a mother? Giving the child up for adoption was never an option for Frida, she would never want her child to grow up with the resentments she harbored.

Frida left her life of crime and went into hiding with David in the craters of the moon. She never thought she could love her life so much, though the majority of her life had been spent alone she found solace and the love she had always searched for in her newborn family.

Unfortunately, life did not turn out all roses for Frida, on the day of her sons sixth birthday the Reaper came for her husband. 

David pleaded for another chance but the Reaper was not so kind. Frida took it especially hard, becoming withdrawn and depressed in her old age.

But something strange happened one night, Frida had just tucked Jace into bed for the night and was headed upstairs when she was confronted with a ghostly figure that looked like David! Somehow the strange crystals on this world had enabled David to come back as a ghost during the night.

Frida was at first alarmed and frightened but she found solace in seeing her beloved David again. To this day David still visits her every night and sees her to sleep. 

Would I want to be Straight?

This story post was inspired by our Voicethread assignment but I chose a different topic that fits that question more for my voicethread question so I decided to explore this one here.

The question of would I want to be straight is a very difficult one for me. It's in part a very difficult one for me because I spent most of my teenage years trying to be straight.

It doesn't work

As said in my initial posting, I grew up in a very religious background and was home-schooled and for high school went to a private christian school. I find this question hard to answer not only because of my experiences as an adolescent but also because it brings about many more questions than it answers.

What would have high school been like for me? Would I still believe in equality for everyone? Would I  be a Christian? Or a Deist like I am now? How would my life and love plans turned out differently?

The fact is, I don't know who I would be without my experiences as a gay kid/teenager. It's a question you get asked or ask yourself a lot when you're gay... if you could choose to be straight would you? If you could take that little pill, a la The Matrix, would you?

I know my adolescent self wouldn't hesitate to take that pill, to be straight, to be "normal". I can't count the times I would lay awake at night for hours praying to god to make me straight. The amount of hatred and ignorance I witnessed regarding gay people led to depression, anger and self-hatred  

The fact is that all that pain, all that suffering made me who I am. Its odd to me that I can look back on that time and be thankful for such a dark time in my life because it strengthened me. My answer to the question because of that will always be the same... 

No, I wouldn't take the pill.

Crazy Hats and Confidence

That's one of my crazy animal hats. I started buying them about half a year ago when I discovered them but you're probably wondering what in the hell these hats have to do with confidence.

Ugly Sweater Party Yaaay!

Well it's simple really, I've always been extremely reserved and introverted in terms of personality, style etc. and I had an, well I guess you could call it an epiphany, early 2011. I realized that I wasn't truly happy, yes I was happy, but I was always doing things that I thought others wanted me to do. It's kind've funny when you realize it because we seem to value uniqueness and individuality but as soon as someone does something unexpected we tend to criticize and devalue the person and as such we become afraid of being silly, of being different or, dare I say it, weird.

I decided  to stop being so concerned with others views of me and just do what I wanted to do. This tied in perfectly to my hats because I've always loved crazy things like this but was always so concerned with what others thought that I never wore/bought any.

With my newborn confidence I was able to finally wear what I wanted to without caring about the thoughts of others. Every time I wear one of my hats or buy another it reminds me that the only thing that matters is what I think of myself.

                

Imagine

Imagine

You're walking. Pools of water bubble and spurt around you as the occasional geyser spews forth with scalding hot water. You traverse the rocky road as dust swirls around you in a miniature sandstorm. You quickly cover your face to keep from being blinded, and then, you hear it.

What was that? You ask yourself, bewildered. A roar, no, a shout? Unable to identify the source of the sound you press on. The boulders begin to take shape and rise into snow-covered peaks in the distance. You're almost there. Suddenly, you see something shoot past the boulders to your right.

You quickly turn, greeted by another strange cry...and a shadow. It can't possibly be! You look up, searching the skies for any spark of dissonance and then...you see it. Circling overhead preparing for the moment to strike, it's wings wide as the pools of water and it's tail long as the trees around you. It's sharp teeth grinning, waiting, as it's tongue licks the spark growing in its mouth.

A dragon.

You run for the nearest spot of cover, a pitiable overhang behind a small stone hill. You barely escape the sea of fire flying towards you as the flames lick your feet and grab onto the nearest trees, reducing them to ash. You pull out your sword and cautiously peek out from the nook.

  The ground shakes and a cloud of dust flies into your face as the dragon lands. Your window of time is small, you quickly flank the huge creature and before it can react, drive your sword deep into it's side. The dragon groans and writhes toward you, but you've been careless. The dragons tail flicks like a whip, catching you and tossing you across the road as it rises again into the air.

You stagger for breath as the behemoth prepares it's onslaught against you, recovering just in time to escape the full fury of its fire, but not soon enough to keep your armor from becoming scorched. The dragon lands once more, and once more you advance upon it. The dragon flicks it's tail at you, but this time you're ready.

You grab onto it's tail, holding on for dear life as it swings you into the air. You quickly grab hold once its tail crashes down and run up its back. The dragon takes flight once more, as it tries to shake you from it's back. But you hang on with all your might as you grab the ridges of its skull. You pull out your sword and drive it deep into the creatures skull. It screams in agony as you fall from the sky, crash landing into the ground.

The creature begins to slowly dissipate, leaving only a slew of embers and a skeleton in it's wake.

Just Imagine.

Introduction

Well, being that this is my first post and an introduction let me begin with a story about my upbringing.

 My upbringing was very atypical. I come from a large Italian family who lived on Long Island for quite some time before deciding to drop everything to move to Upstate New York and start a Ministry. This included my Uncle's family, their cousins family and another family who was close friends with all of our families. I was one of two babies that were born in Upstate New York.

I was also cross-eyed, very, very cross-eyed. 

It's very hard to talk about my childhood without talking about my cousins. We all were homeschooled, but together in a schoolhouse built by our parents who had purchased an old, large farm for their mission. I still remember the times where we would play three hour long games of freeze tag or basketball(which was very hard when you had about fifteen people on one court).

Because of the way we were raised we are all very close with each other. We did various community work with our parents throughout the years including food drives, mission trips etc. and were exposed to many different people and environments as children including Spanish Harlem, and many people from Africa and Central America.

The Ministry was dissolved by the time the last of us were teenagers but we all still remain very close to one another. Although my upbringing was very weird and akin to a cult at times I still would not change it for anything in the world.