My 2019 Person of the Year

Do me a favor. Close your eyes and try to vividly think of all the people who have supported you in ways both big and small. Think of the friendship they showed and how they expressed it. Thank them for the time spent with you whether it was long or short. Now, open your eyes. If you could be afforded an opportunity to sit across from the person most present in your meditation, what would you say? As it is every year, this letter is my opportunity to do exactly that. Where the spoken word fails me, putting words to page attempts to rectify.

It is strange to me how Jonathan came into my life. We came of age in Oklahoma. We moved to Washington state. We met because of a mutual friend from Seattle after we both moved to Los Angeles.

Attempting to survive in this city is nearly impossible without a close group of friends. Trying to settle myself into a new place, I turned to old routines and began networking. Wanting a close group of friends who understood being a member of the LGBTQ community, I turned to an LA version of a Seattle group called “Engage.” That’s when I first met Jonathan. A mutual friend of ours from Seattle made it happen but building up the courage to go was all mine; a decision I will never regret.

Instantly, I knew we had much in common. We had lived in similar places, grown up in Baptist churches, we were creative, focused, and…