Gay high school student comes out with hilarious yearbook quote

Calling Maxwell Barrett's yearbook quote "funny" doesn't give the 18-year-old graduating high school senior enough credit.

Barrett could have simply quoted a philosopher or celebrity. Instead, the New Jersey teenager used the words of an "unknown" author to give both classmates and his parents a lasting memory.

Under his last yearbook photo as a Raritan High School student, Barrett wrote "Of course I dress well, I didn't spend all that time in the closet for nothing." The picture, which garnered over 70,000 reblogs within hours of it being posted to Twitter, was Barrett's way of telling his parents he was gay.

"I either wanted to do something meaningful or something out of this world that others haven't seen before," Barrett told Cosmopolitan.com. "I had yet to come out to my parents about me being gay (but of course they already knew), so I thought this would be the funniest and easiest way to do so."

Barrett created the quote by rephrasing a similar quote he'd seen online.

Despite support from friends, fellow students, and Raritan High faculty, one teacher nearly succeeded in pulling the quote from publication. The unnamed teacher said Barrett was trying to give himself shock value.

Fortunately, the principal and vice principal saw things differently, as have thousands of Twitter users. Barrett's immortal words have gained over 7,800 retweets and 16,300 favorites in less than a week.

"I wanted to go out with a bang," Barrett told The Huffington Post. "I have never done sports, or clubs. I was always just an art student. I wanted to go out in a way people would remember me by!"

Senior quote pic.twitter.com/ikzjmHijo0

— Maxwell Barrett (@maxxbarrett) June 9, 2015