Troy Benjamin says that he finds writing therapeutic because the paper is not going to speak back.

“The paper is not going to talk back to me,” Benjamin said. “It's not going to tell me that I'm stupid. It's not going to tell me that I'm wrong. The paper is just going to be there. And I can write whatever I want to, whether it makes sense, whether it looks good, whether it sounds good, or whatever I think good is, it doesn't matter. I can just write anything that comes to mind and just spill it on the page.”

Benjamin is a poet and model who has been working on projects that combine these two passions.

“Modeling is a more visual medium and poetry is more auditory,” Benjamin said. “So I was like, ‘How can I merge these two together? Like, how can I give visuals but also give the message through sound?’ So I've been working with a vocal coach and vocal producer to have some recordings of the pieces that I've written and then create visuals that go along with them.”

He finds himself exploring what confidence looks like through his writing.

“I used to think confidence was just when you walk into a room and walk with pride and stride confidently, but I realized that confidence stems from actually trusting yourself. And there [are] a lot of situations in life that kind of teach you what that really means.”

One of these situations for Benjamin was coming into his queer identity while growing up in a religious family.

“It was hard because it's family, so of course you never want to go against that,” Benjamin said. “But I was like, I'm not really going against family if I’m really going for myself, if that makes sense. Sometimes you do have to go against something that doesn't work for you in order to stand up for yourself.”

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