Admission to private school isn’t the only way to become more open, Fitzgerald noted, but he believes it’s especially important for young men to get opportunities to become more comfortable with people of all walks of life. There he was exposed to people from all over the world and learned to expand his worldview.

One of his earliest eye-opening experiences was getting a full scholarship to Cushing Academy, a private boarding school in North Central Massachusetts. “But what I was lucky enough to have was that I was moving in these spaces where people in my life cared about to have these conversations.” Everyone should be open to changing their environment to learn more about the world. “It is on me to do the reading or to be curious and try to figure out ways to educate myself when it comes to wanting to be, and I don’t even need to say a better man, just a better human,” he said. As a straight and cisgender man, it was those relationships that helped him work through his understanding of his own masculinity and tolerance for others. That’s when I realized while I was trying to write these pop culture essays, I realized actually, no, it’s going to be about my childhood.” Finding family in queer spaces helped Fitzergerald become a better person.ĭuring his years living on the West Coast, Fitzgerald found a welcoming environment among the queer community.

“Only when I started therapy, about three years ago, that I started recognizing the pattern. “Within myself, there was an ongoing, making the same mistakes over and over and over again,” he said. Throughout the talk, Fitzgerald gave shoutouts to his therapist, who he said helped him process a lot of the work he needed to write this memoir. Going to therapy gave Fitzgerald the tools to write this book. I kept finding that out time and time again with ‘Dirtbag, Massachusetts,’” he said. “When you look at the thing you’re trying not to look at, when you talk about the thing you’re trying not to talk about that’s when you’re gonna come up with an interesting story.

Because this memoir is so vulnerable, Fitzgerald had to constantly remind himself not to shy away from his discomfort with his own story.

Isaac fitzgerald dirtbag