So, Friday I went to True Colors, but I’m just now getting to typing this up (although I’m referencing notes taken that day, to make sure I don’t mess things up!)
So, I ended up with about three hours of sleep the night before. I just could NOT fall asleep. So, I was pretty groggy. But I managed to wake up and pull on some rainbow clothing at 6:30 in the morning. I had n thigh high rainbow stockings under jeans rolled up to my knees, a t-shirt that said “Homophobia: Now THAT’S a choice!” on over a blue and black striped long sleeve shirt, a rainbow flag being worn as a cape, and a rainbow-ey sparkly feather boa, as well as some pride pins and a pair of rainbow glasses that I yoinked from my sister. I also wore makeup, which is abnormal for me, that that’s neither here nor there. I might be able to get a pic of me (sans my face…) for all of you fabulous people, to show you the epicness of this outfit.
I got to my sister’s school around 7:30, which is when we were supposed to get there. God, it was early. It was also very strange to be in a high school again after it being so long…I don’t think I’ve set foot in one since I graduated. Hell, I don’t think I’ve been in any public school since then, except the one brief time I was in my sister’s school because I was the chaperone for her class trip to Lake Compounce.
Found the teacher. Had my sister introduce me. Teacher said we were going to pretend I was a chaperone even though I officially wasn’t. If it gets me on the bus, great! We got on the bus and started the long ride to Storrs.
It was cold and raining when we got there, so we quickly rushed inside and watched the opening ceremonies. They were already going, but I looked at the program, and it doesn’t look like we missed much. It was mostly boring things, except Momma the drag queen was there! I LOVE Momma! She had the prettiest blue dress on ^_^. And killer legs, too! But I digress…
After the opening ceremonies, we went to our respective sessions. My sister decided she’d rather hang out with her friends than me so she went off to her own session, and I went to a Body Vocality workshop. Lots of stomping, noise making, and random dancing. It was a lot of fun! We made a fun little song at the end, with a dance. Wicked fun.
Then was lunch. We ended up getting Wendy’s. There was some drama brewing with my sister’s friends. I could tell that things weren’t going to end well, just by watching how much it escalated during the short period we had lunch. My sister’s friends didn’t believe I was almost 23. I had to show one of them my driver’s licence so that they would believe me. They said I looked 18 at oldest. I’m not surprised, everyone thinks I’m younger than I am, especially when I have a short haircut like the one I have now. None of them batted an eye about me living in New Hampshire and going to college though….hmm….
(Potential trigger warning for mentioning the r word in the next paragraph. Nothing graphic, just the word…)
Then it was time for second session. I tried to go to a Zumba session (dancing), but it was full. Poo. Instead I went to a session called “Consent is sexy!”. Didn’t learn anything particularly groundbreaking. Basically, it boiled down to, make sure you have consent for whatever act you are doing, consent to one sexual act is not consent for all sexual acts, consent can’t be given when drunk/intoxicated, the absence of no is not consent, and consent can be revoked at any time. There might have been some other smaller notes, but that was it. Which, as I said, I mostly already knew. Oh, and they brought up that arousal is not consent, and that men can be raped too. Whenever I hear that, I get so angry at my high school health teacher. My TEACHER lied and told me that men can’t be raped. If the teachers are lying, how am I supposed to learn things? I mean, I got the information elsewhere, but that’s simply because of my interests, I wonder how many of my former classmates are still going around believing that…
I didn’t go to a third workshop. I bumped into my little sister and decided I wanted to go to a workshop with her. There was drama going on in her friend group, however (and I mean DRAMA….someone got arrested, and everything! Told you I knew it wouldn’t end well…) so we went outside and gave people free hugs. I must have hugged hundreds of people, it was great. One girl even kissed me. Surprised me! It was just a peck on the lips. Apparently the person next to me was giving out free kisses and she hadn’t known I wasn’t offering kisses. Oh well. Boyfriend knows about it and isn’t upset (not that there was anything t be upset about…a peck on the lips from someone who I’ve never seen before and will never see again isn’t really all that threatening…), so all is well. My sister kissed a girl in front of her ex (who has been being a real jerk recently, so I was happy when I saw that….literally, girl was STARING at us all day. It was really creepy….) Around this time, the cold and my lack of sleep conspired to make me crash. I sat down for a while, then went and whined to my sister about how I wanted the bus to be here (hey, she whines at me, i’m allowed to whine at her…)
Then it was on the bus back! We got caught in traffic, so we were bored. We all stared at a truck driver at one point, to see what he’d do. we waved at cars. Might have been the sleep deprivation, bu it was fun. High schoolers are like college kids, just less mature and more likely to get caught :-p
Then I finally got to my mom’s. I managed to be up until around midnight or so, when I just passed out on the couch.
All in all I had fun at the conference, but I don’t know if I’m going to go again. It’s mostly oriented towards high schoolers, which is great, because high school can be such a difficult time if you’re not straight (see my earlier post about being bi if you don’t believe me), and I feel as though being in an environment that accepts them unconditionally is important, but…not so good for me. And the workshops were kinda ehhhhh it seemed as well. I found myself leaning more towards the participation workshops, like the dancing and stuff, because the rest of them just seemed boring, or I wasn’t allowed to go to them because they were “high school only”. Most of the other ones I either 1. Knew the information presented in it (like the consent one I went to, ones about what is bisexuality, and, this one surprised me, one about privilege, etc) 2. Had been to one similar before (bisexuality ones, Homo No Mo guy, etc…) or 3. Had no interest in (oh gosh, I don’t know…like the lube tasting/condom testing one). I mean, I’m happy I went, because seeing my sister go to her first True Colors was fun, but…in the future, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to justify the spending $25 and taking a day off to come down to Connecticut for it.
But there’s my impression of True Colors. I would definitely suggest that you go once, if you’ve never gone before, but know that it’s much more fun if you’re in high school than being older than high school…
Abnormally Psychotic 