| In 1994, I moved to Boston Massachusetts to attend Boston University's College of Communications. With my education there, I hoped to one day ease the process of coming out for someone else and I hoped to also be in an area with a higher concentration of gay guys for my own benefit. I wanted to make positive gay films, one's that are not necessarily about being gay, but simply have prominent gay characters. I wanted to let youth know that gays can be normal people... but things don't always go as planned.
By the end of the 1994-95 school year, I'd decided that online was were I wanted to be and had decided "Multimedia" would be my major. Financial aid, however, had another idea and I didn't return for the 1995-96 school year.
In August, 1995, this site got profiled in NetGuide and the number of visitors per day skyrocketed. I got letter after letter telling me that he thought he was the only normal gay guy in the world but I had shown him otherwise. I realized I was doing exactly what I wanted now. I was changing people's perceptions of themselves and making being gay something easier to deal with.
Yet Justin's Koool Page wasn't a "career." I mean it took a lot of time, it was changing lives, but it was costing me. There was no Members Edition, and thus, as usage increased, it became increasingly difficult for me to pay for the site's usage.
Somehow or the other, I decided that instead of taking what was there and charging for it, I'd create a whole new "bonus" section for people who could contribute. In that way, no one was worse off for having not paid, but those that could contribute and who did would be rewarded.
In the course of all this, I'd gotten a letter from a guy in California asking if I had an agent. Of course, I didn't, but the thought of being famous was more than I could resist. Through that and several other happenings, I decided that Boston was no longer where I wanted to be. California, Cement Ponds, and Movie Stars sounded more to my liking, so I applied for admission to the University of Southern California's College of Communication and was accepted.
In Fall 1996, I began class there and have just finished my first year. Justin's Koool Page is still far from making me money and light years away from being a household name, but the fact that I met someone randomly in New Orleans and they asked if I was "the" Justin has let me know that I am having an affect.
I still dont' know what I want to do when I grow up, but I do know that I'm getting there.
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