Story:

When I was 13, I started to realize that the feelings of affection I had towards my best friend weren’t purely platonic. She gifted me a mug with a giraffe in love for my birthday. The mug said: “Every day of my life, I’m filled with loving you.” There was something pestering me for months, when I suddenly realized that I want to kiss her and hold her everytime we meet. I knew that boys were still an option, but I wanted to pursue her at that time. I was crawling through various internet sites in the late oughts, solving a wide variety of “Am I Gay?” quizzes and finding about queer feminist music, which I related to instantly. I finally decided to tell her. She reacted wonderfully, although the feelings weren’t mutual, but she offered to be my first kiss for me to “be sure” about it.

A few years later, when I had my first boyfriend, I realized that I was pansexual – I found out about the term and instantly connected with it. He was also very accepting, which helped me get through the whole process. In college, I had my first girlfriend ever and came out to the rest of the friends and finally, the family. There were bumps in the process, but in the end, I stood tall and proud as the giraffe from the mug.