Hey @7pennies !!
Fellow queer person/lesbian here!! Thankyou so much for sharing, I totally get what you're saying here, and this is a topic that I think it's so important to talk about too. I think it's so true, (especially during highschool), that being a queer teen can feel so incredibly isolating and also lonely too. What you've mentioned about just wishing you could talk to someone who understands what you've been through really resonates with me. I'm at the point now where I have queer friends, and it's been so great to actually talk to people who get it, but during highschool I was also in a friend group with some lovely straight girls. And like you mention, my straight friends were and are the best!- so accepting and it totally does not matter to them that i'm a lesbian - but at the same time, we obviously have different lived experiences! And I think it's really understandable that you want to find people who also have had these experiences too, it's a really important part of coming into your queerness I think!
It's awesome that you're out though, you should feel super proud! I wasn't out out in highschool, only to friends and family, but I remember there being a couple other kids who were publicly out, and they were some of the first people I actually came out to. So from that side of things, I think that you being out is actually in itself a really great way for you to find more queer friends in the sense that other people will feel comfortable coming to you! I also second what @Matcha_Toad is saying about online spaces being really useful for chatting about queer experiences, especially given you mention that you live rurally.
Keep us updated re how things are going, i'd love to chat a little more!! 🥰
