Well, I'm home and mostly unpacked. I've just lived through another of those "most incredible experiences" of my life. Yes, I know they all can't be superlative, but this one takes the title until the next one comes along.
To review, I'd made a few posts on April 4th describing what was coming up for me with the big Sun-N-Fun airshow:
https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php?topic=228563.msg2121153#msg2121153Well, it's all "in the can" now, and wow. Just wow. I feel like a completely different person.
I have been rather pointedly reminded that my posts tend to get a little long, so I'll be posting vignettes of the experiences in separate entries. As an overview, though, I drove in and set up camp with a lot of anxiety. I know so many people at these shows. There were 122 volunteers and 55 exhibitors in our area, at least three quarters of whom knew the old me. So as a rough guess, there were about 130 people who either knew about my transition, or were going to find out at the show. You can imagine how intimidated I was at the prospect.
At the volunteer banquet at the end of the show, the director of volunteers (and my neighbor, who knows all about me and my previous anxiety) asked how the show had gone for me. I paused, trying to come up with an appropriate answer, and unbidden, two words popped out: "
The Best!"
Without exception, every single one of those 130+ people were absolutely
awesome. Those who knew (or learned) of my situation were completely accepting and respectful, and what's more, those who didn't know... didn't know! I was just Stephanie Bensinger, the woman announcer on the Paradise City Media Team.
The first day I tried to avoid the microphone - not because I have had mic fright in the past, but because I was freaking out about getting the voice to match the presentation. But by the second day, I was getting into the swing of it. Much of it was because I had the technical knowledge that Paul lacked, and I was getting tired of hearing him getting it wrong. As the week progressed and we got more comfortable, we developed a banter that the crowd just ate up. They loved it when Paul got it wrong and I corrected him with humor. There were so many $1 bets that he lost, that he would have covered my fuel bills if he'd ever paid up. They also appreciated it when I described Paul as
having a radio voice and a face to match. I didn't have the voice, but I could at least be the pretty face...
I loved working with the audio equipment, and showing off my knowledge of the aircraft and aviation. I had such fun! And everyone around me was
so cool. We were appreciated so much that other Florida aviation shows are making preliminary overtures to bringing us in to do theirs as well. We'll see if that pans out, but the prospect now excites, rather than scares me.
The show started on Tuesday, with bad weather that kept us from doing much. I took the opportunity to gather my courage and walk the entire display area, introducing my new self to all the people I'd known in the past, with fantastic results. I've lost count of how many hugs I got from both the women and men. Wednesday I started getting into the swing of the announcing, and on Thursday, when we shut down for the big airshow on the other side of the airport, Paul and I roved the display area with wireless microphones doing interviews with the vendors. I was the pretty assistant who collected brochures and provided the equipment for the interviewees. At one point, when we got out of range of the microphone receivers and Paul struck out of his own to do some interviews closer to the antennas, I visited booths on my own for personal interviews and brochure collection. I found myself seated with a few vendors who hadn't met me before, and as far as they knew, I was Stephanie Bensinger, collecting information for the media team. I simply couldn't stop grinning.
My uniform on Saturday, custom embroidered top and all:
Some time that afternoon, between the total acceptance of those who knew, and what was apparently flawless passing to those who didn't, a profound thought occurred to me that had me in tears:
I texted a friend, "I think Steve died today."
More stories to come...
Stephanie
