So, I’m psyched that my letter was printed. I wrote the letter on Friday, and I got an e-mail that night saying that it was being considered for publication in the next few days. I’d been checking the paper every morning since then, and I was so excited when I finally saw it today. It’s always been a goal of mine to get a letter printed in the Times. Now I’ve been immortalized on microfilm, and I’ve been further enGoogled.

(Incidentally, the reason I’ve censored my last name from the comments section is because I don’t want my URL to come up when someone Googles my name. And, yup, that’s really my last name…)

I was nervous about what my parents might think, because they weren’t happy when I came out to them for good a few years ago, and I know they’d still prefer I were straight. Shortly after I got to work this morning, each of them called me within a few minutes of each other.

They usually look at the letters page, but they’d missed it this morning; nevertheless, my aunt had seen the letter, and she’d called my dad. When my dad called, he congratulated me and told me it was a great letter. This made me very happy. When my mom called, the first thing she said when I answered the phone was, “I’m so proud of you. I’m SO proud of you. I’m kvelling.” (Hooray for Yiddish!) Apparently she’d found a copy of the paper and had read the letter out loud to some of her co-workers. And she told me to “forge on.” I got a nice e-mail from my aunt, too. I was also congratulated by one of my gay co-workers, who had torn out the letter and put it in his pocket, and by my boss.

The cool thing about the New York Times is that so many people read it. I’m wondering if any long-lost classmates or childhood teachers saw my letter today and said, “A-hah!” Not that I literally out myself in the letter, but… come on.

Anyway, on to my next goal, whatever that is.