Hey everyone,
Since my last thread a week ago was a bit pessimistic, I wanted to share some recent positive developments that have occurred. As some may know, I am currently working a temp job and struggling to get by. Well, I decided to talk to my boss and see where I stood in my place of employment. Apparently, there is a full time position opening up and they are interested in having me fill the slot. It's okay with my office manager who makes the hiring decisions, but she has to get approval from hr. Therefore, as long as hr approves my transfer, I should now have stable employment and access to benefits through my employer. I may have to wait a little and may be off for a few weeks until that happens, but I'm confident that it will come through in time. Even though I won't be making a whole lot and will remain the broke person that I currently am (lol), I will have a full time job in a stable environment. At this point in time, I couldn't be looking for anything more perfect than that and am grateful to everyone who has helped me get that far (including many here on this board- my little journals have gotten me through a lot). A step in the right direction is a step forward. And the best part about this is that the work environment could not be any more supportive. When I talked to my employer about my transgender status, she said "that would never be an issue for me". She's known about it for a long time (even before I was hired as a temp), but this is the first time we spoke about it. So, it feels really good to know that my employer is supportive and understanding about my transition. While I was really paranoid about that, it turned out to be nothing in reality. On top of that, I came out to another co-worker and she was really excited and happy about it. She could not have been more understanding and supportive. It's almost surreal because I thought everyone would hate and despise me. In reality, everyone seemed totally fine. And the one I came out to wasn't even really shocked when I said it. I can't say how good of a feeling that is.
On the family front, things are still tough, but there have been positive developments in that realm as well. My sister has decided to convert to Islam and she is in a serious relationship with a devout muslim. While I myself am not religious, I am tolerate of people from all or any faith. My only concern is how one practices their religion and how that effects their day to day interactions with others from different backgrounds. Now, my sister's boyfriend is a very nice man, but tends to have more conservative leanings. Nothing is wrong with that; however, it made me worried about how he would react to me since I am transgender. Last night at thanksgiving was my first in-depth interaction with him since he has discovered that I am trans. While I know that doesn't agree with the lgbt lifestyle and thinks my transition isn't natural, he was incredibily nice to me and never once said anything about it. In fact, he treated me no differently than he did before. This made me feel really good because I want anyone that my sister may happen to one day marry to like me or at the very least tolerate me. It would really hurt for my decision to transition to effect anyone's relationship or cause a wedge in our family. I've seriously been worrying about the possibility that I wouldn't be able to interact with my sister if she were to marry him and raise a family. However, it appears that my lgbt status isn't really an issue for my sister or her boyfriend, despite the fact that he is morally opposed to my decision. There are still other family issues, but things seem to be better in this one area at least and I don't feel like I have to worry about losing my sister if she were to further her relationship and fully convert to Islam.
Just wanted to share some positive developments. We all good through good and bad times, so it's important that we are equally open about both to avoid any distortions of what transitioning can be like. It's not all negative all the time.
