Poly Wanna: a guest post about Polycamp Vancouver Island 2011

Soo...  I promise I'll put up a big post-Polycamp Vancouver Island post soon.  Meanwhile, I have a guest post from a friend of mine from Seattle who attended our camp:


by Scott Campbell on Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Been having the interesting experience lately, after being in an open relationship with Terisa for 14 years, of finally feeling ready to be truly polyamorous. I've had plenty of other girlfriends during those years, but they've always been fairly lighthearted and uncommitted, and I'm realizing now that some part of me was deliberately maintaining a distance. We've long had the joke in our family that Terisa is polyamorous, I'm a swinger, and Larry is monogamous, and there's been some truth to all three of those labels until recently.

But now I find myself wanting a more committed, emotional involvement with my other sexual partners, and in fact desiring that part of it more than the sex. I don't know whether this desire will manifest in reality or not, because currently I've got no other partners. I just feel my desires and priorities shifting. For the past couple of months I've been making deliberate efforts to be more social, after spending many months happily holed up at home not really seeing much of anybody. Been throwing a lot of darts, as they say, none of which have stuck as yet. That's a good part of why I went to Polycamp in Canada last week, and the experience there of just hanging out with a bunch of people -- none of whom I knew when I first got there -- was really eye-opening. I miss them all now like they're long-lost friends. The fact that they all live on an island that's expensive to get to intensifies the feeling of separation.

I've got no particular point to make with this ramble, I guess ... just trying to clarify some of the things I've been feeling lately. I always thought I was a good poly boy, but now I'm realizing, not so much. I've had no problems with sharing my girlfriend, but I haven't been particularly good at sharing myself. Something I'd like to try and change. Terisa is the epic love of my life, that won't be changing. But there's room for deeper feelings with other people.