Are we really "the same person" after transition?

[Sammy]

I keep telling to those important to me that deep inside I am the same person. But with each day and week, my conviction is faltering. I used to think that the essence of my transition was to shape a softer and more subtle version of me. Now, looking back at my past, I am pretty sure that it would have been impossible to have  "a softer version of him". He was he, and me is me. We share common memories and body, but the way we respond to many things, the way we think and relate, even the body language...  I might fail where he would persevere, but I can sort the things out with a soft smile, where he would be bashing his thick skull against the wall until one of them would concede (and I suspect the wall would loose its patience first). I can stil get angry and irritated, but that is a short hot breeze, not long-lasting tornado.
No, I am not the same person anymore. I am not better or worse than he was. I am different. I am a girl.

[Shantel]

Over a nineteen year period I can say that I have definitely changed in appearance considerably. My personality changed under the influence of female HRT from a type A to an almost type B meaning I'm more laid back and easy going and as others have said, more enjoyable to be around and not the prick I used to be. Internally I can say for certain that my thinking slid from one end of the spectrum clear to the opposite which frightened me initially and I de-transitiond for a short time because of it, which I now regret.

Yesterday I emailed my old hunting buddy in Eastern Washington an updated photo, I haven't seen him in several years so I was coming out to him for the first time. He was quite accepting and said he had his suspicions that something was going on when I showed up for an Elk hunt wearing earrings. I haven't hunted or fired a weapon in several years, I've simply lost my interest in those things. I opened my gun locker, there were spider webs in there and I cleaned them out, evicted the spider and gave the firearms a light coat of oil inside and out and locked them back up. I only keep them now just because I can, but really don't have any use for them now.

My circle of friends is now predominantly cis women, previously I had zero interest in women's conversations about relationships, hair and clothing styles, recipes, kid problems, periods, mastectomies, discussions about emotionally unavailable men, and what a bitch so and so is. Yes, I'd say that transition has changed me to the point where I'm not the same person I was before, I am better, ask my wife she agrees!

[aleon515]

Essentially I'm the same. The strange thing is that it kind of defies gender stereotyping but I am a much better listener as Jay. I'm helping out a couple younger guys (HS age). I never liked that kind of thing before. When I was a teacher kids didn't particularly seek me out as sympathetic. And I wasn't particularly. Funny thing I am on the autism spectrum. My therapist commented he thought I seemed to be less autistic. Seems unlikely but...

--Jay

[Shantel]

Essentially I'm the same. The strange thing is that it kind of defies gender stereotyping but I am a much better listener as Jay. I'm helping out a couple younger guys (HS age). I never liked that kind of thing before. When I was a teacher kids didn't particularly seek me out as sympathetic. And I wasn't particularly. Funny thing I am on the autism spectrum. My therapist commented he thought I seemed to be less autistic. Seems unlikely but...

--Jay

I'm a much better listener now too. I suspect that the noise going on in our own heads about our ever pressing GID issues may have trumped our ability to be a good listener and or have any empathy for that matter.