Sean Gold

Like, it's like the legend of Bloody Mary.

Like, I've said your name enough times that you've manifested yourself and are, like, gonna ruin my life.

And we make a little bit more small talk, and then she goes, you know, like, we don't, uh,

we don't have to keep lying, we can just quickly make this true.

And she gives me the look, and then I'm like, oh my gourd.

I'm just processing the fact that my fake gay beard has manifested herself and is now proposing the summer fling that everyone thinks we already had at Epcot.

And the second thing growing through my mind is I don't want to make this real, but also I don't want to keep lying and it's like I am in this weird in-between where I don't want the social capital, I'm lying solely as a defense mechanism, but my lies have backfired and instead of making me disappear, they've been pushing me further and further into the spotlight.

So I realize in order to stop this roller coaster, I just have to be honest with this girl.

And I'm like, Sarah, I can't.

I... And she looks at me and she like squints her eyes and I could see the wheels turning.

And she goes, you can't.

And I say, yes.

And she goes, because of your religion.

And I go...

So actually, that pretty much settled the matter.

When you bring up Hinduism in rural Pennsylvania, people are just like, okay, cool.

But...

Not only was I thankful that the story died, I was really thankful that, you know, at this time in my life, this secret was such a burden.

And I was really thankful for that moment.

So I could see that in an environment as difficult as high school, there were other people sort of putting on a performance.