I am me

Scottie Rocks is in the house!

You’ve seen me in Asylum Volume 2... You’ve seen me in pictures on Shaun T's Facebook... You’ve seen me walking next to the man... You’ve seen me running around behind the scenes at events making sure things run smoothly... [blockquote]But who is that guy?![/blockquote] Well, I'm glad you asked! Let’s start from the beginning... What follows will be random and will jump all over the place, but that is me and how I think. I have accepted it. I was born in upstate New York but my parents raised me in Seattle, WA with my older brother, Kevin. We were a VERY active family! We played every sport possible as youngsters but realized very early on that soccer was our passion. Soccer taught me a lot and took me around the world, culminating with a six-year professional career playing for teams in Sweden, Seattle, Portland, Cincinnati, and Buffalo. After I retired in 2000, I worked for my parents’ company as the “money guy," handling all the accounting. While still overseeing the financial side of the business, I moved to NYC to pursue a modeling career after being “discovered” by a scout. On the outside, everything seemed wonderful, happy, and perfect—but on the inside I was struggling, unhappy, and hating everything about myself because I was gay. [blockquote]On the outside, everything seemed wonderful, happy, and perfect—but on the inside I was struggling, unhappy, and hating everything about myself because I was gay.[/blockquote] For me, growing up gay was HARD. Being a gay professional athlete was even harder—almost tumultuous. DON’T WORRY, I’m not gonna get up on a soap box and preach to you about gays, gayness, or politics—my goal here is to simply talk about acceptance. All I ever wanted was to be accepted for who I was, and because I didn’t see any “normal” gay people, I thought gay was bad. Think about this: what if having blue eyes was freakish...or having blond hair was considered abnormal...or having a second toe longer than your big toe was wrong. How would you handle it? It wasn’t until I met Shaun and his amazing self that I learned that being gay was amazing, because I was being ME...a genuine ME! There is such joy in not having to pretend to be something else! It frees my brain and allows it to enjoy all of the wonderful sights, sounds, and smells that life has to offer—and it's these very differences that I learned make me special! [blockquote]For the first time in my life, I accept who I am.[/blockquote] For the first time in my life, I accept who I am. It’s an AMAZEBALLS feeling accepting who you are! It’s scary but exhilarating! Some days, I regress and try to make everyone think I have no faults, but when I wake up from that haze and realize what I have been doing, I fix it. So, that is just a little about me. I am BEYOND excited to be part of the ShaunTourage and be able to share more about who I am in hopes that someone else out there might identify with these same struggles and realize that it’s actually okay to be yourself. We are all human—EVEN SHAUN T—TRUST AND BELIEVE! I just want you to allow yourself to embrace your inner YOU, so you can have more time to eat Dairy Queen Blizzards and be amazing!

The post I am me appeared first on Shaun T.