Well, I finished up getting my Masters in Computer Science. Yeah! What's more, my transgender based Human and Computer Interaction research project has been dubbed as having a "reasonable" chance for publication by my old professor, provided my partner and I do some user testing. The extra nice thing about that is this professor doesn't like to publish just to get to a quota. He likes the research he publishes to matter and be cited by other works. I'd love it if my research was published, but even if it's not, on both my academic and gender levels I find myself feeling satisfied.
Just sucks that I gotta start my new job as a guy tomorrow
. I'm not on hormones yet, I gotta go in for prelim-blood work later this month, but I socially transitioned in my program during my last semester in school. Despite all the problems it caused I found presenting and carrying myself as a woman made life easier on the whole. I was more out going & sociable, calmer, far more confident, maybe even more productive. I know I wouldn't have made it through my last semester if I didn't come out. Being in the closet & 12 grad credits & 20 to 25 hours of work a week would have been just too much! As I write that last, I find myself reflecting on how much I loved getting ready for my day. I can't stand it when there's a TV special about a MTF transperson and there's the obligatory shot of said transperson putting on their makeup. Yet for me I found that time like meditation and I miss it. I wasn't thinking about pushing bits around in a computer. It was a nice time of day, even if to do it meant I had to get up earlier
. Back on topic, I also made my first female friend who knew me primarily as a woman in school. So what also bugs me is I know I'll be working with women in my new job. I'm not happy they have to meet my faux male side first.
Losing the social part of my transition for a while is going to be very hard...
B-U-T the health insurance company for my new employer does have plans that cover hormones and SRS. Don't know yet if my employer has one of those plans but I'll be going through the paper work tomorrow to find out. Everyone at my new employer is at minimum a Senior Developer too and I'm finding my region to be cool with being trans on the whole. I haven't had a car these last 2 years so when I came out in school and started going there presenting myself as the woman I am it was the bus for me with the general public to get to campus. I had one incident while on board but was far more often than not fine. So a girl can be optimistic that she'll be able to lose her male facade sooner rather than later, can't she?
I do hope my paper goes forward. I see it as my best vector to going full time. It'd be something out there that would create the perception of, "Hey, she may be trans but she does good work" to people who don't know me. I don't even know if we get to go the conference my colleague has in mind but if we do, the only scraps of men's clothes in my suitcase will be for the benefit of the TSA.
September girl, hold on till September...
