Sanctuary
The community theater was my first sanctuary, where I felt un-judged, loved unconditionally. While I pretended to be someone else, I could more fully be myself. The friends I met there, my community, loved me and accepted me. They took me to Bretz in Toledo for the first time, where many times over the next year, I would leave my worldly struggles behind, and just dance. I would meet friends there who are friends still today. Charlie's was my sanctuary in Chicago. At 2am the music changed from country to dance, and my friends and I would sweat it out to the latest Britney Spears remix. Many a birthday party of mine ended at Charlie's with my friends, no care in the world. Where is your sanctuary? Your book club? Your kickboxing class? Your church? Where you meet friends to catch up and hang out. Where you feel so safe that you could never imagine having to carry a gun there. Now imagine someone deciding that you and the other people like you are wrong and worthless and so the w