The most extraordinary thing I have done in my life is survive, and I can't even say that I have done that with any particular grace, but this isn't a story about great accomplishment or elegance, it is a story about life and what it takes to give life meaning, which is effort. Effort, persevering through rejection and setbacks does not look pretty, but it is necessary to accomplish anything worth having. I set out to find something that would finally make me happy and in the end I did, I found the love of my life and the support and acceptance I had always wanted. This book isn't going to tell you how to get anything the easy way, but, if I did my job right, will show you that persistence and hard work, though it is sometimes hard to see, really does pay off in the end. I didn't set off to write a book, I just wanted to keep a journal to try to figure out how openness and honesty fit into my life. When it started turning into a story, I decided to keep it in journal form because I did not want to gloss over the bad things--the days when I was so far down I just wanted to die. I think a lot of us have days like those and happiness only comes when we are willing to push through them and get to the other side. It's not that autobiographies make accomplishment look easy, but most of the time in order to present the accomplishment in the most heroic light possible gloss over the blemishes and that's not what I wanted to do here. It's all here for you to judge me however you please. This version of the book contains 32 full color illustrations, some of which I reference in the book. To me they are an important part of my story, but I realize that not everyone may feel that way, especially at the inflated price, so I created a text only version which is a lot less expensive.