You just never know...
It's quite amazing remembering the path you thought your life would take take as a teen, and then looking back 50 years later at its actual course.
After graduating SHS, I spent the next 4 years at Bowdoin College, graduating with a degree in English and visual arts, spending my first semester senior year studying at Wroxton College in the Cotswolds of England. Upon my return to Bowdoin, I fell in love for the first time - with a man. I'd known I was gay since early childhood, but never thought I'd meet anyone.
Three years later, the clandestine relationship a part of history, I moved to Denver to start a new life. Starting in 1984, I began my career in the computer industry, and in 1987 met my future husband, Jeff. Moving back to New England in 1989 we have now settled into our home on the ocean in Lynn, MA, along with our basset hound, Gracie. I continued my career in computers for several years, but changed career paths in 2009, becoming Executive Director of the North Shore Alliance of GLBTQ Youth in Salem, MA, from which I retired in 2021.
Highlights of the last five decades include marrying Jeff on the beach at sunset in 2004 (who'd have thought that would happen in our lifetime???), being honored by the Boston Celtics at halfcourt as a 'Hero Among Us' at their first Gay Pride celebration in 2019 (another 'Who'd Have Thought' moment), as well as playing basketball around the world at the Gay Games (www.gaygames.org), winning numerous gold/silver/bronze medals.
My life has been has been blessed in so many bizarre and exceptional ways, and I'm hoping to complete my memoir, 3 x 18, in 2025.
Good for you my man! Sometimes all the hard work you put into doing what you you’re good at and being who you are can be a gargantuan effort - no such thing as instant gratification if you’re in it for the long haul. But eventually it does pay off. Everybody deserves to be happy. Obviously you made your own luck!