My senior year, I had a journalism class. I was aiming to be a sports reporter since I had a career-ending injury the year before while playing football for the school. Halfway into the semester, we were assigned to investigate and publish a story with a randomly assigned partner from the class. I was assigned, Sam.
I didn’t know Sam, but he was very friendly. Lots of girls in the class loved him and they hung out with him in the evenings. He was also very gay, often wearing Pride clothing, and known for all his rainbow laptop stickers.
At the time, I had no interest in males. I dated cheerleaders, normal jock stuff. But everything changed after my injury. My friends on the team drifted away from me, and so did the girls who liked being around the football team. I was very lonely, and (looking back) very depressed.