Life of Liam

Writing is something I have always enjoyed and, in recent years since starting this blog, it has become an outlet for me to express how I am feeling. In my final years of high school, for assignments, I began writing about issues which were very close to me - in particular, as I grew more comfortable with my sexuality, I used my writing to understand what I was going through and how I came to understand my sexual orientation. I started this blog to provide a public space for me to comment on my life's experiences and what I was making of the world around me. As my blog has grown, writing has become more important to me and has been an essential part of my life as I progress into adulthood. My writings come from a place deep inside and are cathartic in nature - they allow me to expel my (potentially corrosive) thoughts and emotions in a healthy and safe way. Writing allows me to connect and engage with what is happening inside my head, giving me a space to analyse and understan...

The title of this post is a question that I have been asked many times, usually after I have said I was born and grew up in Livingston (a town in Scotland). It is a question that could be rephrased to "what is your ethnic background?" or "where are your parents from?" - though the need for this type of question to be asked at all is questionable in itself, unless it is the topic of conversation already. What I take from this question is "you can't be from Scotland, you're not white" and so I must divulge into the long spiel about my family background to appease their curious mind, after which they seem to switch off. I am mixed race. My mother was born in Singapore and my father was born in Scotland. It is a mix I am proud of, and one which has enabled me to experience so much more in life than many others may not be able to. However, living in a country where you do not exactly look like everyone else will of course lead to these types of que...