The Super Strength of Queerness by Isaac

The Super Strength of Queerness by Isaac - January 2026 Scholarship Essay

Queerness is a superpower and I am tired of pretending it is not.
I came out at the ripe age of eleven, only a few weeks before COVID-19 forced us inside of our homes for over a year. During the pandemic, I obtained a false sense of confidence around my identity and I was unfortunately met with the ugly reality that queer people faced as soon as I went back to school in person. When I realized how harshly people like me were treated by others, I made every possible effort to lessen myself and become more reserved. I became distant from my family and I lost many friends, but most importantly, I lost myself. The proud and generally happy person I was had vanished, and I assimilated so much to fit in with the “normal” crowd in middle school that I had become empty inside.
It wasn’t until the beginning of high school when I saw a boy with a full face of makeup casually walking around campus that something reignited inside of me. I rediscovered a strength I wish everyone could learn to have in regards to how they are perceived, which is the ability to not care. That moment was when I realized that my personality and forms of expression were just that: mine. Nobody could ever take that away from me, despite how hard our current impossible social standards try to. Now, because of this epiphany I had three years ago, I have finally grown into someone that actually feels like me and I couldn’t be more proud of that. Granted, I am still striving every day to become a better version of myself, but I find great comfort in knowing that at least I am in a much better place than I was when I was still attempting to hide specific parts of myself from the world.
I want others to also keep in mind that it took over two years after I had already come out to actually begin realizing my potential in expressing myself. My queerness is constantly helping me grow to become more confident and expressive, but there was once a time where I viewed it as one of my biggest weaknesses, too. Although it’s difficult even now sometimes to not feel inferior to others around me based on differences in identity, I know that this part of myself is still one of my biggest superpowers because of the level of character it has allowed me to achieve within myself. Now, I would die before I even thought about diminishing myself to conform to society ever again.