I dealt with all this business as a kid and was transitioned by the time I was 18. I never met another trans person until I was 22 and checked into the hospital to have SRS. I was pen pals for a few years with someone I met there but she was old enough to be my mother and then she passed away suddenly.
After I was divorced from my husband when I was in my early forties, I managed to meet and get to know three or four others thinking I might embrace my transness. It was less than a positive experience because they had all gone the more traditional route with lives as men, wives, kids, military service, careers, etc., and really weren't very much like me at all. It made me feel weird, different, like an outsider and in a way I felt they maybe fetishized or idolized me or didn't think I was trans enough because I'd never been a man and had to struggle as hard as they did? Not sure but it was but it was something? I gave up having anything to do with trans everything.
Fast forward nearly two decades later... About two years ago, in a totally unrelated and generally conservative news, current events and politics forum, I witnessed a young 20 year old member there open up about her life when the topic turned to trans issues. She was diagnosed at six and lived a dual live until she was 12 when she went on blockers, then HRT and had SRS at 17. The stories she told, the experiences she had and her attitudes and outlook were so strikingly familiar and similar to my own that I messaged her, shared my own story and we began a friendship that in a strange way, helped me get in touch with my own transness and history. She gave me the courage to talk about it and how I eventually ended up here and on one other forum. This is the first time in my life I've done something like this and I'm not on any other type of social media or out at all in real life.
What I've found so far is that I still am different from the majority and in a way, it's kind of isolating. There's a few here I can relate to, Julia1996 comes to mind as one but that's just creepy considering I'm two generations ahead and more than old enough to be her grandmother so it is weird for me. I figure most of the trans kids from my era probably didn't make it or are buried deep in the woodwork as my life has been.
As to the topic of this thread, does it help to meet others face to face going through this struggle, I would say it probably does because I think it's only human nature to seek commonality in others but what do you do when you went through these struggles fifty years ago? It almost seems the more I read, the more different it makes me feel. I'm even reluctant to offer advice here because what do I know about the things people are going though because I haven't had many of the experiences most seem to be dealing with.
In my own case and where I'm at in my life, I have no need or desire to meet others face-to-face. I do enjoy reading all the stories and experiences shared here and it's kind of eye-opening in many ways. That's good enough fo me.
