While it's hard to compete with Clair and Tech Girl in terms of scope, I just had a truly amazing experience.
This is a cross post with my thread, but I have to shout it out!
So, today is my birthday. And it started out... pretty terribly. But my experience just how erased all of that unequivocally.
(copy and paste from my thread)
My sister always has the best socks. Just really amazing socks, crazy patterns and colors, they are just plain fun and cute. She has dozens if not hundreds. I've always been in awe of them, even before coming out. I've told her how great they were for years. So this year when people asked me what I wanted for both Christmas and then my birthday, I didn't speak up about what I truly wanted: women's clothes and accessories. I made due with some games during Christmas, a few nice cooking tools, etc. But come my birthday, I just asked for gift cards, because I still haven't the courage to say what I really wanted, and I figured an amazon card or two would help out. Well, not a single person listened to me, and I'm glad, because I got some really thoughtful presents all around. But the winner hands down... my sister got me two big packs of socks like hers. Women's socks, with amazing and hilarious and cute patterns. I didn't have the courage to ask for anything I wanted, but she knew. And the thought that went into that... the acceptance to act preemptively on something like that... the attention to detail for remembering how much I loved her socks and how cute and girly they were... it brought me to tears. After, she said something that I thought was just so incredibly wonderful and insightful, and is something so many of us here have said time and again. She knew I was scared of presenting in public or around people, but with socks... I could wear them, and I would know, even know one else did. That she understood what that meant to me without me ever saying anything remotely like that was just... it just floored me. What this present means to me is just... I can't even do it justice. I am just bawling as I type this, tears of just pure happiness. Such a simple thing, but such an amazingly wonderful thing somehow at the same time.
(end copy paste)
But yeah, it's no GCS.
But even if it's just socks, this is something I know I will remember forever. It is the moment that I felt not just accepted, but actively encouraged by someone who means the world to me, and is a huge turning point for me in terms of awkwardness about the issue around family.
