Here We Are & Here We Go!

Hello, everybody! And welcome to our blog!

Before we go any further, we want to say two things that are the total truth (this will get us started on the right track since we made a commitment to each other to be as honest as possible in this blog).

Total Truth Number ONE: We both are so happy you’re here. It’s blowing us away that we already have readers who have signed up as “Followers”! Last night we reread what we had originally written for Day One and went through this flurry of emotions that caught us both off guard. We know this may sound like what we’re “suppose” to say in the first Welcome post, but you’ll have to take our word for it when we say it makes us genuinely happy that you’re here.

Total Truth Number TWO: It’s hard to put this in words, but we’re both having two main feelings here on Day One. What makes it hard to put into words is that we’re feeling both these things at the same time.
The first feeling is this emotional high of being so happy, excited and proud of ourselves for doing this. It’s almost like what we imagine someone would feel in giving birth, if that makes any sense. We’ve worked on this together (though less than 9 months) and have laughed, cried, argued (in the best sense of that word), gotten exhausted, gotten energized and ended up feeling our love has grown and deepened.
The second feeling is we’re both scared shitless. Are we going to do a good job? Are readers going to think we’re nuts? Are we going to be boring? Is anybody going to read this regularly? Is this whole thing silly? What are people going to think of us if we open up and share what’s happening in our lives? This whole thing is kinda risky, you know? Opening up, being vulnerable, you get the idea.

So there you have it. We are so excited and scared shitless -- all at the same time. But, we’re learning to face our fears by knowing that ultimately this is our life. We hope you enjoy reading our blog and can bear with us as we work though everything we’re feeling.

First of all we want to give some credit where credit is due. Two friends in particular have meant a lot to us for their encouragement and support. One friend, Troy, has been so happy for us from the beginning and a few months ago suggested that we start a blog. He said it might be a good place for other gay teens to come and read about how two gay guys form a relationship and deal with various issues that come up which may be different from what happens in a straight relationship. We both have been incredibly fortunate to have somebody like Troy in our lives because he has been a huge support to us. We got to thinking about where other gay teens go for support as they try to make sense of their lives and relationships, and thought we might make some kind of contribution to other gay guys out there. Thanks for your encouragement and believing in us, Troy! We both love you more than you can know.

The other friend is Thorny. We originally met Thorny through an online website for bookreaders and from there learned about a blog he has. If we had not discovered Thorny's blog, we're sure Troy's suggestion that we write one would have gone nowhere. So, we give credit to Thorny for not only inspiring us to try and be as honest and funny and serious and a pleasure to read as he is, but we also credit him with the name for our blog. We asked some friends for suggestions and Thorny's suggestion just kept going to the top of the list. Thanks, Thorny!

It's a shame that we feel the need to say this, but, if you have a problem with reading about gay relationships then you've landed on the wrong site. If you have an open mind and have no intention of doing any bashing or spreading hate, then you're welcome here. We want this Blog to be a safe space for the two of us and, of course, our readers.

So, without further ado, let's begin. We're going to start things off by each of us writing about how we met almost a year ago. Starting tomorrow Brad will go first, then Matt. We agreed not to read what the other had written just to see if our memories were the same, or to just see what came up. After writing them, we read what the other had written and, sure enough, not every detail matches. We got to see that first meeting through the other's eyes.

We hope you enjoy this and will let us know you're out there!

Matt & Brad