70 days... BLASTOFF!!Woo! So today was the big day! Had hella crazy dreams last night - including one where I was at work and every time someone said my dude name I said "who?"! In another one there was a huge crowd of people I'd never met there to wish me well, including an impersonator of a former Prime Minister in a bad wig!
Got to work bright and early. The boss said she wanted to give me a big hug, she's pretty damn proud of me, she's been with me on this journey since I revealed I was transgender back in early March last year! Another close colleague, the other one who has been with me on this the same amount of time, bought me some beautiful pink lilies. Truly beautiful!
I received this email from a member of our Board (as a community, non-Government organisation our Board members are volunteers, not paid but usually managers in other NGOs):
QuoteDear Grace,
Congratulations and in a way welcome to (the organisation)! Thank you for asking A (the boss) to share your exciting news with us. I am so pleased that you are undertaking your transition while continuing to work at (the organisation). I imagine that today in some respects might feel like your first day at work, hence my welcome statement.
I've said this to A and the rest of the Board but want to say to you directly that although I'm confident that the (organisation) staff, Board, members and our associates will be supportive of you should you ever experience any discrimination or vilification that this is something the Board will take very seriously and we will stand beside you and deal with it in a timely and appropriate manner through our complaints and disciplinary procedures.
Congratulations on taking this important step. If there's anything I can do to support you feel free to contact me directly anytime.
Wishing you bucket loads of happiness and peace.
How awesome is that?
I received a number of nice emails from other Board members, plus from some people who work outside my organisation.
But you know, it was a busy day and it was soon down to work. Had a few people slip and call me by my dude name. I just said "who?"
But overall they are trying hard. Some of them have known me for many, many years so I'm going to cut them a little bit of slack.
It was certainly the longest I've tried to maintain the "Grace persona" and it did feel a little bit of an effort at about the five hour mark but that evaporated because I was too busy to care. By the end of the day I was almost part of the furniture, which is great! So it was both an extraordinary day and an ordinary one. The important thing is it felt good. I didn't have to worry about trying to keep the girls hidden away. i wore my favourite dress, been dying to wear it to work for the longest time. I felt normal and I felt respected. I work for such a great place with a load of awesome people.
Commuting was a breeze too.
Got a wonderful call from Catherine to check up on me, a really nice end to the day!
I'm going to keep this transition thread going for a while longer, this certainly is only the beginning of this phase in my life and I figure it would be cool to write about the process and other developments.
