Suzanne Rust

That was Christopher Bruhn Horan.

He lives in Los Angeles with his husband and their sons.

He's a playwright, essayist, and educator who, among other things, developed a storytelling program for inmates at the Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles.

It's hard to be different, especially when you're a kid.

And Christopher remembers being bullied and feeling isolated.

He was afraid of anyone discovering the truth about him.

Although his best male friend was also gay and they spoke every day, they didn't share that information with each other until they were in their 20s.

He says that the outside messages they got were that scary.

Eventually, he found his people in drama club and musicals in high school.

but he always felt afraid and self-conscious.

I asked Christopher what advice he'd give to his younger self, and he said, tell someone, anyone, shame is the worst.

One day you'll stand in front of 150 people and marry the man of your dreams with your brother as best man and your Irish Catholic father weeping in the front row next to mom.

You're a trailblazer and you don't even know it.

To see photos of Christopher as a child and as a teen on one of his undercover trips to New York City, go to themoth.org.

There are times in life when you need to find creative ways to control chaos.

Our next story was told by Louise Newton Keogh at a story slam in Melbourne, Australia, where we partner with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABCRN.

Here's Louise.

Here's Louise.

That was Louise Newton Kehoe.

She lives in Melbourne with her husband, where she's a student advocate at La Trobe University.