Acceptance

By Lauren Deluco

I never actually came out to my parents—or my friends for that matter. I feel like they always just knew that I was interested in women romantically. I do distinctly remember a time in high school when my parents discovered that I was in a long-distance, online relationship with a girl from California named Veronica, though she hated that name. My parents sat me down in the living room of our home and they asked me, “Do you love this person?” My 13-year-old self couldn’t fathom the idea of what love meant, but I said yes anyway. Maybe that’s why I have such a hard time figuring out what love is now. There hasn’t been discussion of my sexuality between myself and my family, save for moments like the time my mother took me to the grocery store and handed me $20 to pay because “the girl at the register is really cute,” or when I brought home the girl I liked and they warmly invited us to come into the living room, and accepted me for who I am.