A Prisoner Within

My name is John and I just turned seventeen. I don’t look different from anybody else, but I feel different. I don’t walk or talk different from anybody else, but I feel different. I go to church and school like everybody else. I socialize in the same ways, but I feel different. I don’t know why I feel different? I did not make a choice. I did not suddenly decide to feel different. Nobody told me or suggested that I feel this way. I cannot help feeling different. I guess, I am what I am and nothing or no one can change that. I feel like, I am not one person, but two people. First, there is the John that everybody knows or thinks they know. The John that is loved by his family. The John that is well liked at school. The John that always makes the winning shot in the final seconds of the game. However, there is also another John. A John that is locked up deep within me. A John that writhes in the corner of a prison barred not by steel, but by social perceptions and prejudice. A John that curses his confinement, but cowers in the corner at the thought of coming out. A John that dreads leaving the security of his cell because it may mean losing the love and support of his family and friends. A John that fears the persecution and words of hate that may await him in the world outside. A John who lives in soul twisting torment caught between what he has to appear to be to others and what he feels certain is true. Oh God! how I wish I could be as free as the seagulls that fly over this great span. I long to be released from this burden that tortures me day after day. Perhaps this is the only way...God forgive me!