Aideen had two older sisters and while Miach was the first child born, soon came a slew of cousins that he grew up with almost like siblings. He was a fairly quiet child, preferring the company of books to other people. He was incredibly shy and ended up sticking closest to his mother through most of his adolescence.

Though there had been other signs that Miach would grow up to have a different leaning later in life, it wasn’t until he was about twelve that he realized that he was more fond of boys than girls. A crush developed on the older brother of one of his female friends. Though he had feelings for the boy for the next five years, nothing ever came of it and he was too scared to be open about his interest.

He tried dating girls, considering it to be the thing you were supposed to do in secondary. And nearly lost his virginity to the girl whose brother he loved, but was unable to perform. It was at that point at fifteen, he stopped trying to deny his sexuality and came out to those closest to him as gay.

While he had all the love and support from his close friends and his mother, outside of his small circle, he was picked on for being smaller, for being different and for being obviously queer. It was at fifteen that his eldest aunt ended up getting married to a man who constantly goaded him about it and who a year later manipulated him and forced him into a sexual relationship. His first.

The abuse was discovered by his mother about six months later. Miach refused to press charges because he was embarrassed and didn’t want the situation paraded about in public or in front of a court. Instead, once he finished secondary, he moved to London with one of his cousins.

Instead of jumping straight into Uni, Miach chose to take a gap year and spent it in London discovering himself. He embraced the gay scene in central London and started sleeping around with older men. He became addicted to the attention they gave him and the danger of getting caught by wives, girlfriends, and etc from these men hiding their desires from their day to day life.

During this time, he also tried to reach out to his father and try to build a relationship with him with the idea that something was lacking in his life and the decisions he was making came from missing a father figure. Liam demanded a DNA test, which Miach obligingly went through and when the results came back positive, his father was dismissive about the results.

He had married when he was twenty three and had three other kids with his wife. Miach went to visit them once and was accepted warmly by his step mother but his father made it clear that as long as Miach was going to sleep around with men and label himself as homosexual, he had no desire to create any sort of bond with him. Miach only reached out once more, but after the plans fell through, he gave up on contact with Liam and filed him away as nothing more than a sperm donor.

The summer after he moved to London, Miach met a boy his age named Nicholas from San Francisco, California who was spending the summer in London with some friends. They hit it off well and ended up in a fast paced whirlwind summer romance, leaving Miach to feel like he had finally fallen in love. When Nick went back home, they promised to stay in touch and Nick started making arrangements to bring Miach over to the States.

It took a few months, but with Nicholas working on paperwork and things from his end and Miach from his, Miach was accepted into the University of San Francisco’s writing program on essay scholarships. No sooner than he moved to the States, the couple started having problems. Miach caught Nicholas cheating and while they initially worked it out, it inevitably led to their break up and Miach being thrown out of the apartment so that Nick could move his real boyfriend in.

With no job and only what was extra from his grants, loans and scholarships to live off of, Miach started sleeping on the couches and in the dorms of friends until he started realizing that older men would be willing to feed him, cloth him, and pay him in exchange for affairs and sexual favours. He did this during the process to be allowed to work while he carried his F1 student visa. He took a part time retail job once he was able, but without it paying enough, continued to sleep around for favours.

He started putting more effort into his writing to land paying jobs with it. Starting out at first writing essays for his classmates for money under the table. And as soon as he was able, he applied for citizenship, giving up his status as an Irish citizen. Once he was legal, he got a standing weekly article in the San Francisco Chronicle and started a blog about LGBTQ rights. He started making enough money to support himself and got his own place for him and his cat.

Through this, he discovered his voice and started putting himself more in the center of things in events like Pride, where he sometimes performs in dance, singing and speeches. He started volunteering at an LGBTQ youth shelter, where he’s done work in helping teenagers the last three years.

After a whirlwind crash and burn relationship with a girl that almost led to marriage, Miach ended up involved with Breslin Landis during the tail end of his divorce. The relationship lasted four months before crashing and burning, leading Miach to realize where his boundaries are as well as his self worth. He is currently trying to pick up the pieces of his life while keeping an as optimistic attitude about it as he can.