Everyone always wanted me to be a cowboy. To stand tall in the saddle. To look squinting at the sun to tell what time it is. To do what had to be done, even if means shooting your dog, or your best friend dying on the dusty streets of Dodge. To do what had to be done. To be a man, for Chrissakes. To die with my boots on.

Instead I decided to be myself.

submitted by Steffan Ziegler
Seattle, Washington, USA
submitted July 1998