Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2007 12:26:40 -0700 (PDT) From: Dan R Subject: Me & Justin 24 Me and Justin 24 The End. I went through another year of school and hockey. We never did win the state championship I so desired. We came close though. I went to college briefly on scholarship and went on to pursue my real dream of hockey. Over the years I played for 14 years on all levels of the minor leagues. I never made it to the NHL, but I had a blast trying. I currently live in northern Minnesota with my partner Jacob. You may remember him from Chapter 14. We reconnected and have been together for almost 9 years now. I am still best friends with Jeff and Ryan. We played hockey together after high school in Canada. They are both married with kids. I wrote this story about myself for a couple of reasons. I guess the most important reason is that gay guys in high school are always portrayed as sissy fairies. In my life, that hasn't been the case. I also wrote this because of the notion that there are no gay athletes. Over the years, I was honest with every team I played for. I never lied about being gay when I was asked. Sometimes I wasn't asked, but most people knew. There were some problems with some players, but nothing all that major. In fact, you would be surprised at the amount of other gay hockey players that I met along the way. They didn't want to come out of the closet, because of what happens when an athlete is `found out'. But I also know that being open isn't for everybody. I really hope you enjoyed my story. I got a lot of emails from people and have developed some cool online friendships. I never thought I would write anything like this, but I had a lot of fun doing so. It gave me a chance to look back at my youth. The good times and the bad. Take Care All!