Josh is just such an inspiration to me. It’s so hard to put into words how I feel about this kid and I don’t want it to come off as creepy because I understand that I don’t know him and I probably will never meet him, but over the past few weeks that I’ve been so involved in becoming a fan of his he has honestly changed my life and made me so unbelievably happy. He motivates me to be a better, more confident, more honest, more active person. Not even active in a health or physical fitness sense, but someone who actively speaks up and stands up for the causes that I’m most passionate about.
Over the past few years I’ve really struggled with figuring out what I want to do with my life and who I want to become someday. I’ve always been really passionate about gender studies and human rights but coming from a family of religious, conservative, closed-minded people, I’ve never felt comfortable with opening up about the fact that I want to devote my life to these causes.
All through high school I had a lot of friends who were gay, lesbian, whatever, and it never mattered to me. In fact, I loved them more and held them closer to my heart because I knew how hard they had things at my school and because they were still so confident in who they were that they made me strive to find that same confidence within myself. I’d come home to my parents and have terrible arguments with them about why they couldn’t love these people the way I did. They were so negative all the time regarding their ‘lifestyles’ and I’d end up in tears because it broke my heart and my spirit that my parents couldn’t just put the fucking bible down and see things the way I do. I still don’t understand and I never will. I’ve given up trying. Instead, I’ve grown up enough to know that they’re wrong and I do everything I can to make them as angry as they used to make me.
I’ve finally gotten my life together and I’m going back to school this fall. I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few months weighing my options for my future and this is always something that’s been in the back of my mind. I never saw it as a possible path for me, but it’s people like Josh who motivate me to stop caring about what people in my family might think and to do what’s always been in my heart. It’s exciting because I think I’ve finally decided that this is really what I want to do with my life.
Josh has so much going for him but I think the real reason he’s so important to me is because he’s able to put all that aside and use his fame to bring attention to a really personal part of his life for this cause. I respect him so much and I’m so proud of him for being such an amazing person at such a young age. I wish I could just hug the kid and tell him how much he’s changed my life in such a short time. It sounds so cheesy but he’s my inspiration.