RIKI

andriel + quotes

Hey all,

I made an executive decision today on something - people have been asking to read or reread the side stories and back stories for ICoS for years now. We took them down in mid 2014 because we thought we would edit them and then post them again, but we never did end up editing them. Since we did think we’d repost them after editing, if the editing never happens it seems dumb to keep them offline. Also, you could still always find them on the Wayback Machine/Internet Archive, so it’s not like they were completely gone ever.

So, fuck it! I’m putting them back online where they were before! Why make it harder for people who actually want to read it, I ask you? I ask you! I’m psychic so I know your answer is, “I don’t know!” so my answer to you is “ikr!”

And thus we have:

http://www.aisylum.com/sonnyais/icos/sides.html

Disclaimer: I haven’t read these things in forever, so the editing may be shit, and some details listed in the back stories or side stories may have changed over the years in the editing of the main series. If there are discrepancies, you should go with what’s in the main series.

No, I don’t think I found a world that welcomed me. Along with that stereotype there’s sometimes the push back, the “Not another one, we don’t want them.” That’s the way some people feel. And I got to a point where I thought, “Like me for who I am and if you don’t like me just because I’m gay, I feel sorry for you.” But what skating did do was allow me to start training in bigger cities, and all around the country and the world, and through this I met so many types of people.

Which came first, starting to skate or starting to understand that you were attracted to boys rather than girls?

Skating. When you’re in elite sports, it’s so easy for you to put your feelings of having a crush on someone on the back burner and just think, “I’m focused on what I’m doing right now, I’ll deal with that later.” I think it means a lot of different experiences happen later in life. Skating takes so much time and it’s a full-time job so you don’t have time to get into relationships or have those experiences when you’re younger.

So when did you first become aware of being attracted to men?

At first I was trying so hard and hoping that I wasn’t gay and I had one or two girlfriends when I was in my late teens. I was giving it my best shot and thinking, “Maybe I’m bisexual.” And then when I had my first kiss with a boy, I was like, “Ha ha, no I’m not. Babe, you’re gay!”

At age 27, Vincent Van Gogh failed as a missionary and decided to go to art school.   At age 28, J.K. Rowling was a suicidal single parent living on welfare.

At age 28, Wayne Coyne ( from The Flaming Lips) was a fry cook. At age 30, Harrison Ford was a carpenter.  At age 30, Martha Stewart was a stockbroker.  At age 37, Ang Lee was a stay-at-home-dad working odd jobs. Julia Child released her first cookbook at age 39, and got her own cooking show at age 51. Vera Wang failed to make the Olympic figure skating team, didn’t get the Editor-in-Chief position at Vogue, and designed her first dress at age 40. Stan Lee didn’t release his first big comic book until he was 40. Alan Rickman gave up his graphic design career and landed his first movie role at age 42. Samuel L. Jackson didn’t get his first major movie role until he was 46.

Morgan Freeman landed his first major movie role at age 52. Kathryn Bigelow won the Academy Award for Best Director when she made The Hurt Locker at age 57. Grandma Moses didn’t begin her painting career until age 76. Louise Bourgeois didn’t become a famous artist until she was 78. Whatever your dream is, it is not too late to achieve it. You aren’t a failure because you haven’t found fame and fortune by the age of 21. Hell, it’s okay if you don’t even know what your dream is yet. Even if you’re flipping burgers, waiting tables or answering phones today, you never know where you’ll end up tomorrow. Never tell yourself you’re too old to make it. 

Never tell yourself you missed your chance. 

Never tell yourself that you aren’t good enough.