Ziggy is a Certified Peer Specialist in PA and currently resides in Pittsburgh. He is a member of the Let’s Act committee, a group of peers devoted to raising awareness about mental health care. In his downtime, he enjoys reading novels and watching nature documentaries.
View all postsPride For You and Pride for Others
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The most important gift you can give yourself is credit, credit for small tasks, credit for big ones, and credit for progress. The little steps often lead to significant results, even when change is difficult to see. This past pride month and every month proceeding it led to a more open and accepting society. Even with sad news pertaining to LGBTQ+ rights, we must remember the resiliency and support that allowed those to live their truth.
Pride doesn’t mean to have ego or hubris, it’s the ability to accept ourselves, with our flaws and imperfections, to strive to be the best person we can be. Pride means being able to support others who might not be able to support themselves. Lending an ear and listening to someone else’s life story can open up their heart and in turn, by sharing your own life story, you allow others to see a glimpse of your life experiences, and with that common ground can be made and built from that.
When I think of progress, I think of older women in my family telling me about a time when wearing pants was taboo for women, they could only wear dresses, conservative ones at that, because society at the time was more restrictive about things like appearance. Today, I couldn’t imagine not seeing my aunts and other relatives in slacks or shorts. With LGBTQIA+ rights and history, it’s important to realize that even holding hands with a partner could be considered an extreme taboo but slowly with social change, policy, and the human experiences, that was transformed into things like marriage equality and living with a true partner.
LGBTQIA+ Pride to me means accepting myself and accepting others as well. To have an open heart and an open mind so that others can feel comfortable and accepted. The Golden Rule of treating others how you want to be treated has never left me, and I’ve always carried that standard with whomever I’ve met. We must have grace and consideration for others as we would ourselves. A positive attitude is something I strive to take with me wherever I go. Times may be tough, but the late Tina Turner said what got her through the roughest times in her life was “Endurance,” the ability to endure and with it the promise and expectation that things will get better. Thank you so much for reading as we move into July, I wish you all a great summer celebration!
Ziggie
