Natalie Slaughter

It's okay to dump your friends — even friends who have been there for you in the past. Remember today that you deserve good things and good people.

Because you only get one shot at life.

I barely had a chance to say “What’s taking him so long?” before he stepped up to the counter to ask me what he could help me with. Me. Not my friend who had been standing there for a minimum of twenty minutes waiting for assistance, but ME, the white girl.

If I have sex with a woman, it does not make me gay. As someone who identifies as female, it doesn’t even make me a lesbian.

We’ve all made bad choices when it comes to dating. Mine involves Hannah Montana, a tractor, and an awkward invitation to a threesome.

Even a Google search will conflate “queer women” with “lesbian.” So the first and most obvious thing I wish people understood about being a queer woman, is that we exist.

Is anything keeping you from believing that you deserve good things?

You can learn to live with the pain, you can move on as I have after over a decade of self-reflection and hard work, but you never, ever get over it.