My mother came around over time and, in fact, I think she loved my girlfriend more than she loved me some days. I was happy, in a relationship and my career was starting to take shape. I joined Walmart in 2008 and feel it was then that life really began to make sense.
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It was my first time being far away from my family and I was having to learn how to "adult" without any help. In 2007, I met my girlfriend and moved to Arkansas. It was then that I started living rather than just existing. It took several years of clean-up time and trying to reconcile my faith until one day I stopped asking for it to go away. That difficulty was fueled by an addiction to drugs and alcohol that I somehow justified as being more acceptable than my sexuality. At no point was the struggle of coming out to them harder than the feelings of self-rejection. My family realized there was something going on when I’d dropped out of school after the first year and they could see the mess I’d become.
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After graduating high school with a full ride to college, there also came this newfound freedom and new things to explore. However, I did not understand how any of it would ever apply to me considering I was struggling with a secret I couldn’t tell anyone.
While it was there that a lot of my fears about same-sex attraction were reinforced, it was also where I learned something profound about purpose. I attended a private school in San Antonio, TX. I'd ask God to take it away and make me straight.
They knew I was different but I knew they just thought it was because I was studious and into athletics, rather than into boys (and dresses) like most of my friends. I was terrified that God would stop loving me and that my family would too. Immediately following that thought was the wish to take it back. Here's her story of coming out and accepting herself ❤️ "I was 15 years old when I had that epiphany that I was gay. Maritza works at the Home Office in Bentonville, AR, as a Business Manager for Gift Cards. Walmart World - On #NationalComingOutDay, we're celebrating the bravery it takes to be authentically you.