pick up those butterbeans, kiddo

bronwyn and i met at age 12 but i dont have any photos from then, really, but this is from grade 9 science class when we were being goofs and i was 13

this is from our first ever sleepover, we couldn’t stop laughing and we were sleeping on a mattress on the floor and we went to boston pizza and got plastic rings that we both still have (bronwyn kept hers on a necklace after that)

i went to bronwyn’s cottage for the first time in the summer after grade 9

we had our first kiss in grade 10 when i was 14 and were in a weird kind of dating limbo period

then i moved to the states and turned 15 and told bronwyn i was in love with her and we visited every chance we could and she sent me flowers and packages

then i went to junior prom with her and bronwyn cut her hair

then we had the most beautiful summer where i spent 5 weeks at her cottage and i cut my hair

then i went back to miami for 12th grade and turned 16 and bronwyn was 17 and we went to senior prom together

then i moved back to canada for university when i was turning 17 and we finally lived in the same place again and we loved each other so much and got breakfast together every day

then after a beautiful summer we started living together when i was 18 and bronwyn was 19  and we went to bahrain together and bronwyn dyed her hair brown and now i get to see her every morning and every night and we adventure in our city and have a coffee shop and love each other more than i could have thought. there were periods of scary intense darkness but we love each other so much and i’ve never been happier. i’ve known bronwyn since i was 12 and now i’m almost 19 and i love her more and more.

Ashiya Kisa on Instagram

Duane Kearns Puryear holding his own AIDS panel at ‘Display on Ellipse’ in Washington, D.C., 1989