Ow! I had my wisdom teeth removed last week (all four), and now the giant holes get food stuck in them (eww...), I can't eat popcorn (crap!), and they hurt and tingle at the same time (umm... okay?). Does anyone else wish to share experiences related to oral surgery, maxillofacial surgery, or dentistry to comfort me?

It's been a long, long time since I've paid a visit to Oasis. About seven months, if my guess is correct. But ever since I started an account here in the summer of 2006, my life turned into something that I can actually live in everyday. I don't coast by on autopilot anymore.

Since timidly testing the waters of gay youth support on this website, I have become nearly free in my daily life, and I become more free everyday. I confronted buried feelings that summer. But again, I'm really breaking out and I feel better about myself than ever before!

I've come out to my mother, father, step-father, brother (and his girl friend), six of my dearest friends at school-- a HUGE feat considering how bigoted and conservative my high school is, and a few near-strangers (mostly at my awesome summer writing camp-- they are all still great friends!).

Honestly, I've become a new person. I love me for who I am, and my confidence has increased beyond belief. Now if I can just get a boy friend... but alas, I'm stuck in Iowa.

I do, however, plan to participate in the Day of Silence. Check it out by clicking the picture.

I have a question: where/how would/should one go about finding a first boyfriend? That is all...

Whoa... I'm looking back at the past few weeks of my life...
I joined Oasis at the very end of May, and since then I've come out to most of my family and my closest friends. I've come out to near strangers at a writing summer camp I went to. I've looked at my little town in an entirely different light.

My town... is just simply bigoted. I don't expect anyone to accept me, and I don't plan on coming out to my school ever. It really is a personal safety issue, because everyone is just expected to turn out Christian and straight, with no tolerance for anything different. I mean, I went through hell when I told people I was an athiest, and they still bug me about it to this day. I moved into the town two years ago, and I am at least aware that your life is really about you and your choices, not about what everyone expects you to do. So I decided that I'm never coming out.

My two best friends now know that I'm gay. My new best friend who just graduated from my little bigoted school is awesome and not bigoted like everyone else. Perhaps needless to say, she is the only other liberal person for quite a few miles around. My old best friend who I left behind in my old town knows too. He was just cool about it. I still visit my old town alot becaue my dad still lives there. It really isn't a 'town,' it's more like a small city (85,000 people).

My brother and his girlfriend have been the best, though. They have helped me decide alot of things in the past few weeks. Although it is very unlikely that they'll read this, I thank them... alot.

The best part about this entire summer is that I have accomplished my goal. I started out my summer determined to meet new people (preferably other gay guys), and I have met a few. But I feel accepted now, knowing that in most places, I can be myself without anyone caring much. I just had my first gay date a few days ago, and it was alright. Nothing happened, I swear. (I'm still a proud virgin!) I feel like I can only date in my dad's city, though, because my mom's town is far too small to keep secrets. And there are no gay people for over 45 miles... it sucks, big time.

In the past few days, I saw one of my old girlfriends and told her that I'm gay now. She didn't care, as I expected (she's so awesome like that!). So, now I'm waiting to hear if I have a date with another guy, one of her friends. He's sooo cute looking! I've only seen his Myspace, but I'm confident. This is truely the best part of the summer: After starting off cold, I'm dating for real now.

Woot!
I'm so fucking happy that I want to cry!
-Bryce Williams
brycew331@gmail.com

Well, this was a few days ago, but I didn't want to post for some reason. But then I just realized that I hadn't posted in a long time. So, on to the story: So, my bro works at his girlfriend's house, right? Her parents work with film advertisments, and hes going into graphic design at college. Anyway, so he was the only one there during the afternoon last tuesday and I stopped by just to see him. We were both workin' and stuff (I was workin' on a story for a workshop I'm goin' to on Saturday), and there was just this silence, so I just poped it out there in a 15 second little speech. It was ironic because we had just been discussing my break up with my (ex) girlfriend. (I wonder why I broke up with her... it'll always be a mystery...)
Lol! YAY!!!
--::speak::--

Part of the reason that I joined Oasis a few days (a week, maybe?) ago was so that I could try to determine or explore my alternative sexuality. I've been coming to terms with the fact that I am gay for three years or so. I'm fairly sure that I am gay. I almost want to be gay, if that could make some sense. However, I don't know for sure, still. There has been little opportunity to even interact with gay people where I live, and therefore no opportunity to involve myself in a relationship. I have actually abstained from kissing anybody because I know that it would be wrong in my mind if I kissed a girl, and again, there aren't any gay men/boys near my town. I'm floundering in an overwhelming pool of thoughts about how I should come out to the rest of my family. I don't think that I could come out but to four (or less) of my friends. I'm just horribly confused and disoriented. I'm used to knowing almost everything that is going on with me, so I'm really stuck. I want to talk with my mom (she is one of two people that know that I'm gay), but she's phobic of me touching a computer with internet access. I want to tell her that Ive decided to sort all of this out, and to help I joined Oasis, but I don't know how she'll react. It'll be one of two ways: "You'll get raped!" or "Oh that's great!" And then I'd like to tell my brother next, because he has great insight and advice. I'm fairly sure that he would take it okay, and his girlfriend might even throw me a party. In summary, I'm confused and advice from all of you guys would be awesome! (-_-)

It is grey today, cold enough for “warm

So guess what? My life seems to be really crazy right now. My parents have been divorced for a very long time, but my dad lost his job as a lawyer two and a half years ago. He was stealing money from his law firm. At the same time, and probably because of what my dad did, my step-mom started to drink heavily. My mom got pissed and made me move in with her for my freshman year in high school. She lives in a really small town, and it was a big adjustment to make because I was used to the city. I still prefer the city. Anyway, all of these events seem to have culminated in the past few weeks. A few weeks ago, my step-mom had been out with some friends and she got really drunk. Her friend, who had been drinking a little, brought her home. My step-mom decided that it would be a good idea to break out another bottle of wine. My dad, who has been too passive about her drinking, decided to stand up to her and he took the wine away. She got pissed and decided to leave in her car. My dad and her friend were not about to let her drive drunk, so my dad gathered all of the keys in the house and put them away. He went out to our garage after he did that and he saw that my step-mom had thrown all of his graduation stuff into the middle of our driveway. My dad has been going to school since he lost his job as a lawyer, and he had just had a small party with his classmates earlier in the day. He picked up his stuff while my step-mom went into the house to cool off a bit. Her friend followed her into the bedroom and talked to her for a while. My brother told me all of this, because he was home from college already. I was still in school and at my mom's house. He saw all of this, and then he went down to his room for just ten minutes. The next thing he knows, there is a cop lady knocking on his bedroom door like she wanted to break it down. My step-mom had called the cops and told them that my dad was abusing her. My dad was not abusing her, because my bro saw her just after she was cuffed and put into the cop car. The police took my dad and step-mom to jail for the night, and they talked to a judge the next morning. The judge issued a no contact order between them and said that my step-mom could stay in the house until the August trial date. It's crazy because my dad owns the house and pays nearly all of the bills. So myself and my bro are stuck in the middle of all of this. He's living with his girlfriend while my dad and I are staying with my grandparents. It really sucks because this is the only time that I get to visit my dad this summer, and we don't get to spend time together in relative peace at our house. I'm just dumbfounded and I don't really know what to make of the whole situation. Nobody in my family has ever been arrested before, so everything is just really crazy. Anyway, that seems to be my life story and everything on my mind recently.

Damn right I am. I woke up angry this morning (never a good sign), and now my school's principal may be getting the boot because of it. (I really like having family on our school board; I'm a horrible person.) But now I don't feel anything. Let's start a forum discussion titled "Interesting topics to talk about." Or, (better yet) we could do the same thing via comments! ~~~Let's try it!~~~ (someone help me! I'm insane for posting such a pointless thing! I can't stand pointless!)

So, this was perhaps more sucessful than I thought. I should have done this a long time ago, but alas, I didn't. You guys are awesome! This is gonna be a great summer 'project.' Thanks for the great messages of greetings! Now I just need people to e-mail/IM/PM me...

I came to this website to try to become more involved. Below is my introduction/biography. I hope this works...

Soo... I came out to one of my parents (they're divorced), but by the end of the summer I hope to have almost everyone up to speed on all of that. I've known since, well, a long time. I really can't come out to my school, because it's in rural (ultra-) conservative-republican Iowa, and they would beat me, kill me, burn me at the stake and such. My other goal for the summer is to make a friend or two through this site so that I can keep up on the gay community or... yeah. This is still quite new to me, and I'm not used to knowing if 'gay community' is politically correct. But you know what I mean. I feel like little-retard-kid-who-can't-function-in-the-proper-social-environment. I just feel lost. And maybe lonely (does that sound tragic enough?). So, that's a fairly accurate portrayal of my feelings right now. Look for it in a journal in the next day or so.

By the way, hello everybody!