Yes definitely. We constantly undergo a transition in many other ways not related to gender. The whole life is such a process in whcih we learn and change. At some point the whole gender transition also becomes just one of these transitions. At some point it is not about transitioning to a "different" gender anymore, but it is about getting accustomed to that, about learning new things in that new gender and while "transition" as a process never ends, it will more and more look like the transition that every women (or men) goes through in their lives. The transition to becoming an adult, then an over-30 person, then middle aged, then old. The transition from being single to being married and then maybe divorced and remarried. The transition from one job to another. All these life experiences are transitions and will follow up the gender transition and replace it in the importance at a present time, but all of these transitions are always within us as a memory , as an experience. They are what makes us. I would not want to forget the memory of my transition even though I know that in some sense it would be liberating to not know anymore that I am not just another woman. But would that not be a shame? All expereinces are valuable, also the bad ones. And the experience, the memories of having had a gender transition, of having been transsexual at some point - they make us different from those who did not have them, just as to marry a husband makes one different from those who never married or having a child makes one different from those who have not. The distinction between people who have done the gender transition experience (oh gee, sounds like a ride at an amusement park) and those who did not is what I think people want to have a word for. So they use "trans" as such a word to describe that difference, just as they use "married" or "mother" to distinguish between the other examples I mentioned. The downside is, that while marriage and motherhood are catergories that people honor, like, maybe even envy - trans is the opposite for many. And this bugs me and lets me not use that word if I can avoid it. Yet already here in the forums I cannot, as it is just too convenient to use it as a short description of a whole set of experiences.
This is how I see it and what I meant by saying that I AM not trans but that I HAVE had experiences and transitions in my life that were trans (and in some way yes, I still do have some of them now with all the long term post op issues) - but I do not IDENTIFY with trans - it is not "TO BE" which causes identification but it is something like "HAVING" those experiences.
I hope that makes sense. I never know if I write these more complex interpretations in a foreign language
