My 1st Pride Experience...

Yesterday I attended my first PRIDE at the age of 26. My company was having a booth at Nashville PRIDE and they needed volunteers to attend and work it, as well as, walk in the parade (I did both the parade & working the booth). I took this as an oppurtunity to have an excuse to attend PRIDE. I know I shouldn't have an excuse to attend PRIDE, but I am shy and I tend to have some social anxiety with any large social event before I attend.Well, I loved PRIDE. I walked the place when I wasn't helping at the booth. My original plan was to stay for a couple of hours and then make the trip home. I stayed there all day. There were some many different LGBT people and allies from all backgrounds, ethnicities, and ages. It was truly an amazing event. As a first timer who sometime doesn't quite feel inclusion in the LGBT community, it is amazing the amount of inclusion PRIDE makes you feel with complete strangers. The amount of love you experince is all incompassing and heartwarming. When I made my drive back home yesterday even though I was exhausted from all the walking, working and that blasted sun, I felt so pumped.All in all it was the most fun I've ever had in my life and I was even anxious once the event started.