Andy's Relationship About Relationships

Throughout Andy’s story, he demonstrated having relationships with his parents and his peers. The more important relationships were with his friends, which helped him identify his self-acceptance. According to Garrod (2012), peer relationships include close friendships, cliques, peer groups and crowds, and romantic relationships (p. 143). Andy experienced relationships with friends, lacrosse team, and romantic encounters. His first relationship with friends started when he was a young boy in camp. He described his tepee experience he had with another boy from camp. After that experience Andy mentioned, “Maybe we were denial, or maybe we didn’t understand our desires, but we were able to maintain a unique friendship without speaking directly about that night” (Garrod, 2012, p. 196). At that moment, Andy was not sure what he felt about other boys and what he identified as.

During football and middle school he became best friends with Austin. By this time Andy recognizes his interest in boys and believes the ideal relationship would be with your best friend. The more they became closer as friends, the intimate relationship between them grew. Although Andy enjoyed this relationship, Austin denied the intimacy be stating that he would visualize a female. When Austin began to sleep with his girlfriend Andy felt betrayed and knew then that he was indeed gay. Andy stated “The guy I fell for let me down; he switched over to the straight side and tried to drag me over with him” (Garrod, 2012, p. 197). At this moment in Andy’s life, he began to piece together his identity. The rejection of Austin realized he was not into women and would not change himself like