Have you met your neighborhood Barista?

Sterling Smith — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:23:03 +0000

I am sitting here at my neighborhood Starbucks having a refreshing caffeinated beverage. I just couldn’t take sitting in the home office anymore today. So I , like everyone else, gravitate toward a cafe like atmosphere. It’s kinda ironic, because Starbucks is where JoJo and I first met. In the next few posts i am going to give you a short history of our eight years together. Some of the things I say will shock you, others will make you laugh, but the goal of it all is to give you some background to my supposed expertise on love and relationships.

I worked at Starbucks for 4 years. It was a great job. Good pay (back then) and great benefits. Great job. Personally i was very confused as to who i really was. I lived in constant inner turmoil. Am i straight? Am i gay? In truth, I knew I was gay, but this was wrong according to the way i was raised. I enjoyed looking at men, I enjoyed being with men. Women did not make me happy. Women actually drove me crazy, and I hated being around them. (no offense to any woman who reads this, I have changed alot since coming out). So…internally I knew I was gay. Externally I felt it was wrong (add your religious arguments here) and I even got married to get rid of these feelings. Yes, this queen was married to a woman. I justified the marriage by believing that being married would cause the “gay” feelings to go away. After 6 years….it hadn’t worked. And I had amazing proof that it didn’t work when one day while being the neighborly Barista, a young man walked in and asked if we were hiring.

From that moment on, life began to clear itself from the haze of self hatred. The negated revelations of inner exposure began to open themselves to the light of truth. From that point, it no longer mattered if being gay was wrong, it made no difference what could make those feeling go away, because I knew they would never go away….and i didn’t want them to.

Hello world!

Sterling Smith — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:29:52 +0000

So this is my blog. In the saturated online world of blogging I am hoping that my perspective of the world can enlighten, entertain and encourage others.

Who am I? – I am a gay PhD. student. My academic focus is Molecular / Systems Biology. I am currently working on my dissertation. I live in Dallas, Texas (where it is extremely hot today!) with my life partner of 8 years. His name is Justin, but I call him JoJo. We have a condo in uptown Dallas, or otherwise called…the gayberhood.

I am wanting to start off this blog by asking an important question. What makes some gay relationships last longer than others? I know that I can expect the typical responses such as commitment or monogamy. But I want to delve deeper into this subject. What have YOU done to have a successful relationship? Or better yet, what have you NOT done to have a successful relationship?

I look forward to you reading this blog. I hope we can become great friends!

Love...in the end

Have you met your neighborhood Barista?

Hello world!