June is LGBT Pride Month. To celebrate, we're featuring a student essay from Charlie Kolodziej who shared why he openly embraces his identity as a gay teenager. Out of over 5,200 submissions to the 2017 Facing History Together Student Essay Contest, Kolodziej's essay was chosen as one of the three to receive a $5,000 Upstander Scholarship, thanks to the generosity of the Holland and Knight Charitable Foundation. Kolodziej's words reminds us about what it means to decide to not be afraid of showing who you are.