Columbus Pride Submissions: “Your story”

Photo courtesy of Lauryn Winters

The LGBTQ+ community is strong, powerful, seen and heard here in Columbus. And 614 wanted to take the month of PRIDE and give the cover section over to our loud and proud LGBTQ+ Columbus crowd with their unedited copy, poems, art, photos, stories, and more about their experience here in the capital city. From love to heartbreak and everything in between, you get to hear directly from the people who make up this vibrant group about how they view the world and their place in it. Start flipping the pages to check out what the folks living happily and PRIDE-fully here in Central Ohio have to say. Happy PRIDE month, Columbus!

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

“Your story”

By Lauryn Winters

I looked at love, I didn’t see me.

I looked at friends, they seem at ease.

Nothing aligned.

I hated out of spite, I hated out of fear.

A forced smile, only broken cheer.

My truth buried so deep, I soon forgot how to breathe.

A face I did not recognize, a story that was not mine, a fictional tale full of pain and lies.

Losing sight of the dream, a vast grayness of nothing my world would seem.

One question interrupts all of the noise. Words I’d been waiting for. Unaware of their weight. I could brush it off. Yet, she already knew. I was done lying. And so I chose truth.

I chose me.

I chose everything that I ever wanted to be.

I wrote a story with the right title, I picked the genre, characters and I did not lie.

A precious tale, where family and friends walked by my side.

I would struggle, yes, but for the right reasons.

I fell in love with the world again. I saw a rainbow of bright colors in every season.

I look back not to remember, but to not forget.

Each day we will pick up the pen and start again.

Your story is a beautiful one. Keep true.

There is no place for hate when you loves you.