Hello kids, this is Risk, the show where people tell true stories they never thought they

dare to share.

I'm Kevin Allison, and every Thursday we release these special episodes where we look

back at content from our earlier years.

Sometimes single stories, sometimes whole episodes, keep in mind that years ago people might

have awarded things differently than they would today.

As always, the title of the whole series, Risk, is itself a content warning.

This week, a story that Jeffrey Lann first shared on the podcast in March of 2017, here's

Jeffrey now with a story we call Heart and Arrow.

I've always been a bit precocious growing up, and shortly after I first came out, I decided

I wanted nothing to do with this whole dating thing I wanted to just focus on being

happy by myself and not feeling a need to pair off with someone I need to search for someone

to fulfill me.

So of course, as life goes, that's right about when I met the man with whom I'd spend

the next 10 years of my life.

I met Ed when I was 17, met him online through a Yahoo group called Bears in the Kitchen

where large furry gay men and their admirers would talk about food and cooking.

Someone on the list had posted a question regarding a thousand year eggs, a Chinese preserved

duck egg, and only two of us had any answer to that, me being Chinese, and some guy with

this vaguely Polish sounding last name.

He emailed me asking if I was Chinese and I ever saw that indeed I was, and that kicked

off a casual friendship which at the time being fresh out of the closet and not having any

...