"Sometimes I tell myself that life
is a game of basketball.
You're handed a number at birth,
as if the doctor were choosing your place,
the team on which you'll play.
I'm afraid he got it wrong,
that the team he assigned me to
is making me lose the game."
I read this book last evening like a hurricane. I read it again this morning, and I know that I will read it more than once more before I pass it on to a friend who needs to read it. It is so beautifully penned in poetic verse that captures the narrator's struggles with coming out as gay, and with his own sense of self.
Written in first-person, it is heartbreaking, full of heart, and hopeful. He has no idea how he will come out to his parents, yet knows he must. When he tells his best friend he has feelings for him, it leads to a break in their relationship and the loss of the closeness they once had. In fact, they rarely speak to each other anymore.
"I wasn’t born to be a hurricane.
But I can no longer
hold back the winds inside."
Will his family and friends reject him? He has no way of knowing; he only knows that he has to reveal his secret. Concise, emotional language reveals his world and the courage it takes to own his true self. A friend becomes his confidante:
"And in the middle of this whirlwind,
there is YOU.
A special friend,
my forever sidekick."
Making his voice both loud and clear, he finds support with family as well. Now, he can breathe.
The more time you spend with this book, the better it becomes.
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