I come here to make friends, is it normal?

(I`m sorry, it`s long >// <)

I`m a 19 year old, really shy, insecure, introverted guy.
I`ve always been this way, ever since I was a kid. I didn`t make many friends in school because of it - in fact, to make matters worse I was bullied because of how quiet I was.

In High School I got a bit of a confidence boost, I got taller and in my best friends words `got cuter`. Though I didn`t really believe her all that much. I made a small circle of friends who I soon became very comfortable with and came out of my shell a little bit more. It was amazing. I was happy, and I trusted them all enough to come out as gay to them after struggling with it myself for a long time. After that everything kinda buckled - they told everyone in school and that confidence and general happiness disappeared, and was replaced with anxiety and crippling shyness once again.

The bullying began a second time around, only this time since they were teenagers, it was a lot harsher than elementary. They threw rocks at me, spat on me, stole my bag and threw it in the river, burnt me with cigarettes. It didn`t help.

Since the library was my sanctuary from them I got the stigma of a `nerd`, as well as `faggot` and other disgusting names they called me. And when they stole my bag and found the things I carry around inside it, like (yaoi) manga and my Pokémon games, it really didn`t help. I was already a `nerd` to them. They ripped by books and broke my games.

On top of all this, I was abused at home. My mother would scream at me as my father knocked me and my older brother from room to room with his drunken fists.

I`m sorry for the pathetic life story.
I just felt the need to explain myself.

I only really started using the internet for social things recently. Mostly I just used it for research.
I joined a role-playing site and slowly started making online friends. It was incredible, because they treated me normally. And then I came across this site.

I`m not sure whether it was because it`s completely anonymous (if you wanted to be), or just because people were so open here, but I really took a shine to it. On my questions people were so nice and friendly, and honest. Those who aren`t trolls anyway. I never really thought people would be like this online - I assumed they would be even more horrible, all the stories you hear about cyber bullying and things.

So (as pathetic as it is) I`ve kinda made this ask to make friends, and find out whether or not this kind of thing is normal. It makes me seem desperate I know, but a lot of the people on here are really lovely and even though it feels strange asking if anyone here would like to be my friend, I want to. I guess you know a bit about me by now.

I guess I finish this with 2 questions then >. <
Would anyone like to get to know me. . ?

And is it normal to make friends here?
Thank you for reading it all. Again, I`m sorry it`s an essay.