Good luck to you Joe. I was once enamored of syringe needles injecting poison liquid into my blood stream.
The message of Jesus brought me back. You are a courageous man, and I salute you. Ignore the taunts. Take them in stride. I hope you find the right lady and have children.
You know most problems, I mean the lurking kind aren't really actively solved, like changing faulty spark plugs in a car, but trasnscended, forgotten, as if cured not by surgery, but by a healing balm. The message of Jesus, by setting you on a better path, propitiates that. Bring children into your life and you'll be so busy and distracted, so grounded in the "what's what" that you'll occasionally look at the past wondering if that was you... but mostly you'll be looking towards the radiant future someone of your great human courage deserves.
Thank you, and everyone else for your encouragement. Any prayers would be graciously accepted. The courage is not human though, and it is not mine. It comes from God through Jesus and to Him all the glory.