Member-only story
It seems like one moment you are a kid in a rural Ohio neighborhood and the next you are a senior citizen transgender woman.
Life comes at you very fast. Sometimes extra fast if you are attempting to learn to live as your authentic self. Sometimes it seems the more you do to further your gender goals. A prime example would be when you have achieved a spot where you can present as a trans woman who can blend in, then you have to rapidly learn to put your appearance successes into motion. After all, if the public expected you to be feminine, you needed to do your best to do something about it. The whole process came on me fast when other women unexpectedly wanted to talk to me. I think most of them were just curious as they started conversations revolving simple things such as what I was wearing.
Through it all, I needed to quickly learn basic communication skills when I was intensely shy concerning my female voice. I just didn’t foresee anyone wanting to talk to me. It turned out this was only the first of many ways life was coming at me fast.
Of course, there was my stint in the military which ended up coming up very fast after I went through years of trying to outlast the trauma of the Vietnam War. The war followed me through high school and then through college. At that point I was smacked down by Army basic training which I thought at the time would derail any…
