Blake Valentine

Blake Valentine, born in Canada and raised in San Francisco, experienced a life worth running from. From a very young age, he always knew he was different, not “strong” and “masculine” like the other boys. He was often called out for it. Teased and mocked in school, on the bus home from school, even as he played on his front steps with his first pair of abandoned Barbie dolls he’d rescued from the school’s Lost & Found bin. There was no escape. But one day truly set in stone what he was to become. His first day of middle school, his PT teacher Ms. Reynolds’s told them all to go change in locker rooms. They were playing dodgeball as a “fun” way to get the year started. But he knew he wouldn’t have any. Blake hated contact sports with a passion and never understood the need for it. But now there was no option. He nearly shrunk down to feet as he entered the boys locker room, hearing them all playing and laughing and rough-housing. It bothered him- no, it intimidated him to be surrounded by all the testosterone measuring contests taking place. He didn’t belong and felt like he couldn’t breath. When they finished and lined up, Blake stood there still the only one in his uniform. When the teacher Ms. Reynolds’s asked him why, he told her he wanted to change with the girls. The shame and embarrassment he felt as all the kids began to laugh at him, even Ms. Reynolds’s herself as she ordered him go change in the boys room. That was the first day of the worst torment he’d experience for the next 7 years. That was also when he realized just how different he was and just how much that seemed to bother other people. He made no friends, his teachers couldn’t connect with him and his parents were going through a terrible divorce that often ended in him listening to screaming matches even over his favorite Lady GaGa songs he would blast just to drown out the noise. He was alone and misunderstood. By time he graduated high school he has this growing, undying urge to break free from it all.

To go somewhere nobody knew him and start all over. Because who cares if he was different? He wouldn’t change, he couldn’t. It was just who he was and if he could just start accepting that, maybe others would too. Like GaGa and her meat dress. But he had to endure University first. Another 4 years of emotional turmoil surrounded by people who knew him who could speak to others and those others who could speak to others until it was just grade school all over again. He bunkered down within himself, his social anxiety and mental turmoil bearing down on him more and more and the years went by. But he was lying in wait. The moment he graduated he shipped himself off to the US and decided there, he would transform himself. That he did. More confident and outspoken than ever, Blake attacked the world before him without fear, not backing down to a single insult or dirty look. He made friends, found a great job with friendly co-workers and even got invited out to places. It was all amazing to him, to see what a bit of confidence could get you, even if he had to fake it at first. It was around this time that he was invited to a Christmas party and managed to meet the love of his life, Noah Procter. He listened to him, never judged him and found all the time in the world to be there for him even when he would experience his emotional breakdowns. He was always by his side and Blake was madly in love. That is until one night a drunk driver slammed into them on an intersection, stealing his love away in one blow. That broke everything Blake had vowed to become and left him in a state so far from life he barely saw the meaning of it all anymore. Years had passed and eventually Blake alienated everyone and everything around him. By the time, he looked up he was alone again. He knew he had to do something before he lost himself completely. Noah wouldn’t want him to live that way.

So now he’s on his path of self to find the world meaningful again and to be everything he was that brought the best of his life to him.

Now Blake works at Pillbox Medical, as a resident (Doctor), doing surgeries, and lending a healing touch to those who are in need of it.