Thoughts from MY Intersection

Like most high school seniors who graduated in Spring 2016, I applied to colleges in the Fall of 2015 then impatiently and excitedly waited for their admissions decision. My high school best friend Kelcie and I were set by February that we were going to attend the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) together.  Then one February evening, I received an email from a school called Saint Martin's University. The subject read, "FREE Application! Apply Today!" I did not think more of this email nor even think twice about it. Based on the name, I could tell it was a private Catholic school, which only meant it was too expensive. But I applied anyway because I thought "another school and scholarships for the graduation slideshow." So I filled out the application and went to bed. The next day, I received an email from the Dean of Enrollment, Dr. Pamela Holsinger-Fuchs. She talked about how excited she was that I applied and told me the other documents I needed to submit...

For most of my life, I struggled a lot with having straight male friends. It wasn't that I did not want to be friends with them; they did not want to be friends with me. Though it wasn't really shared, I could tell and have always known that it was because of my sexual orientation. Straight boys (no, they're not men) have isolated me and did not want to be associated with me because they did not want people to think that they, too, were gay. Especially when I was in elementary school, boys never wanted to be in small groups with me or include me in "boy things." Of course, there were many times when boys would tease me for being gay and use my sexual orientation as a joke or an insult towards other boys. "Go to your boyfriend Mc Erl," one would say, or "Mc Erl, ____ likes you!" Because of this, most of my friends growing up were girls. I struggled to befriend guys because they did not understand what it means to be gay. Being ostracized because...