I think I was fourteen when I began discovering all the things that were very well hidden from my sight, if you will. It made functioning with others my age difficult, and for a while I resented it all quite a lot. How my parents managed to keep me young when I was out to them as NB since I was ten is beyond me, but they did. When I turned fourteen that all changed, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't do anything to me.

I became cold and distant with others. I don't feel safe in this reality otherwise. When I have let my guard down, I have been assaulted, beaten, and worse. All of these horrific things piled onto me learning that the world is far from just and that I may never be safe in my own skin did that to me. I didn't, however, know it would lead to an awakening of sorts.

There were some positives.

I learned how important self education is. I learned that to understand another persons struggles where you have privileges is direly important. And now by asking people just like me, but getting word from those who face injustice and systematized oppression. Word of mouth educated me and taught me that if we remain silent and hidden we can't ever be ourselves.

And now, with the internet being how it is, more people have the chance to venture into self education. My only hope is that people don't remain ignorant for comfort, but allow themselves to question the world in which they live. To battle societal 'norms', to see how people suffer, to know that we have it in our power to learn and apply that knowledge to something healthy and extremely important.

And I see this everyday. There are now 12 year olds that know more than I did when I was 16.

You're right, when our storm hits, it will be a bad storm for those who willingly thicken their skulls. They will know we exist, and they will know all they did wrong. And maybe we will finally have our voice.