Hello Susan's Place.
Although I am not new to this place, keeping with the fresh start I am currently enjoying I want to use this profile to share my story across many platforms. I first came to Susan's Place in 2005. It has been a very long 12 year journey that has brought my life to this point. Without Susan's Place I would have never become as educated and aware about being Transgender as I am today. I am really comfortable with myself and am happy to share my story with everyone.

I fully understand posting public info here is often discouraged. I am fully aware of this but I feel a desire to show everyone the real me. Hopefully others can see that transitioning is not as impossible as it may feel.

Background:
I am 38. Started HRT in April 2017, this was a major turning point. To this point in my life I had been reduced to hiding out in my house all day, dressed up with nowhere to go. Now I go about my business as usual without a second thought about what I am wearing when I walk out the door.

I am married to a cis gender female, we celebrated our 15 year anniversary this summer. We have been together since she was 18 and I was 20. We have two kids together a boy(14) and a girl(13). My wife and kids are my support system. We are determined to thrive as a family despite one parent gender transitioning.

I work in TRANSportation(drive a delivery truck). My employer is super supportive and they have made my social transition feel seamless. HR, Management and Supervisors were notified about me being Transgender last April when I stated HRT. My main concern at that time is that customers would complain or say something about me delivering to them. The exact opposite has happened, all of my customers who I deal with regularly are embracing Willa.
My co-workers were informed in November of my name and gender change, At that time they were also instructed to refer to me in female pronouns. Although it is not easy for people who have know me for years as Will to get used to the "she", "her" pronouns they are all trying there best and no one wants to offend me.

I Informed my close family and friends that I was Transgender, the only thing left to do is to decide what to do with my Social Media accounts? I seriously considered creating new accounts and inviting those I love and trusted to the new profile. On December 10, 2017 I changed my name and gender on FaceBook from Will to Willa and from male to female. Now everyone knows, not just those on my friend list but also those on my wife and kids list. I could not just erase ten years of memories. Sorry Girls there is not a transgender rock you can hide under and pop out three years later and fly under the radar with no one knowing your past. Unless you move across country and start a new life. I have a family, career and a life that I have worked hard to build over the past 35 years. Being Transgender does not have to be the end of your life as you know it. I hope other people from my generation who may be to scared to come out as Transgender will see or read this and reflect on what is important to them and their happiness. Rather then fear the end of the old you embrace the new you and a new beginning. You will be taking a chance that you may lose people you love but if they can not accept you as you are then they do not love you or they are not your friend and you do not need people like that in your life anyway.

Before I go on and on I just want to invite everyone from Susan's Place to see my social media transition from FaceBook.

[link removed]
My profile is public and there for anyone in the world to see.

I recently started a YouTube Channel
[link removed]
Here is where I will be uploading regular diaries about my transition both socially and medically. I am still fairly early in the transition process so there will certainly cover a lot of ground. At the moment I have "0", "ZERO" subscribers. Please subscribe to my channel. Through my channel "Miss Gender" I hope to show everyone that life goes on and you can live a normal life out in public while transitioning.

Thank you Susan's Place. I can not tell you how much I love this site and how grateful I am for the people I have met and the stories they have shared with me.

Hi Willa 🙋‍♀️ Welcome back to Susan's! I'm Jessica a mtf who is starting compared to many.
I'll post some links if you need to get reacquainted with the site.  I'm glad your back.

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Quote from: Jessica on December 24, 2017, 12:42:30 PM
Hi Willa 🙋‍♀️ Welcome back to Susan's!...I'm glad your back.

I never really left but thank you very much for the links.
I am happy for you. It sounds like you are doing what makes you feel good. I am sure you feel more natural and free then then any other time in your life?

Exciting and inspiring! Thank you for sharing and being.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Quote from: Mikaela on December 24, 2017, 12:53:11 PM
Exciting and inspiring! Thank you for sharing and being.

I am more then happy to share, I am happy you find my story exciting and inspiring. I really feel my situation is very different from most transitioning stories. I have found very few stories on families who stay together when one of the spouses gender transition. It is important for me to share my story.

Quote from: Willa Jolene on December 24, 2017, 01:15:10 PM
I am more then happy to share, I am happy you find my story exciting and inspiring. I really feel my situation is very different from most transitioning stories. I have found very few stories on families who stay together when one of the spouses gender transition. It is important for me to share my story.

So true! I, too, am continuing with my beautiful, loving spouse. I am very blessed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I too am fortunate to have the support of my spouse of 27 years.  It was a bit rocky at first but its getting easier everyday.

I removed your links,

Quote from: Susan on July 27, 2006, 07:45:44 PM
1. We do not allow the advertising of other websites or chats on Susan's Place, with the exception of the Susan's Place Transgender Web Directory which is listed on the main page of this site. This prohibition includes the chat, forums, and the wiki.

There are seven exceptions:

• Links listed added by the chat staff to the Transgender Bot (TGBot) in our chat
  
• Users on the chat may give other users links to their photographs and personal websites.
  
• Links to the source of news stories posted In the News forum which is located under the News and Information section of the forum
  
• Members with a post rank of "family" or higher may post links to off site information provided that the information does not otherwise violate the Terms of Service. This is a privilege that will be revoked if abused.
  
• You may link to your personal website and social media accounts in your forum profile, and/or in your forum profile, and forum signature which is shown at the bottom of your forum posts.
  
• Links to the event website for more information in the Calendar of events.
  
• Site staff may at their discretion provide links to other websites, in order to provide informational resources to Susan's Place users, this is a privilege I feel that they have earned. If you are interested in this ability volunteer for the Chat, Forums, Links, or Wiki.

This is done for several reasons, the major one being spam prevention. It also helps us to ensure that the sites Susan's Place links are family friendly. To recommend sites for inclusion in the links area, simply find the category that the link best fits, and click the 'Add Link' text at the top of the page. You do not have to be the owner of the website to submit it for listing.

When you reach a set number of posts your ability to edit your profile unlocks, and you can put things like that in there. Until then we can't tell if the intent is to advertise.

Willa, congrats!!!! Well you and I are on a similar time frame as it goes. I am 37 myself, started transitioning in March of this year. I came out fully to everyone in July of this year. I changed my facebook as well then but, I didn't do the youtube thing, I have thought about it. I am happy watching some other transgenders on youtube. I actually changed my name on my documents though and am so happy to be out even at my age. I am like you I can create a new account but, everything before has made me into who I am and I don't think there is a need necessarily to change I was a boy stuck with a woman's brain and now i am transitioning my outside to match that. I know many will not understand and others will. So my facebook still has all my old pics and new ones. So, welcome to Susan's and great to hear from others of a similar age.

Hi Willa 

Welcome back to Susan's Place    Glad to have you here again, join on in the fun

Hugs

V M

Hi Willa,

  I'm Laurie. I'm glad to see you taking an active part in our little community. 12 years??? My that's a long time to be a lurker. It's about time you stepped out into the light and joined in. The door is open so come on in!

Hugs,
  Laurie

Quote from: Kelly H on December 25, 2017, 12:16:41 PM
I too am fortunate to have the support of my spouse of 27 years.  It was a bit rocky at first but its getting easier everyday.

What were some of the challenges and her main concerns?

Quote from: Susan on December 25, 2017, 12:32:15 PM
I removed your links,

OK, my intent was not to advertise or break your terms of service. I thought Susan's Place would be the perfect place to share my story with other like minded people. Being out in ever aspect of my life is something I want to celebrate and shout from the top of the tallest mountain. I am proud to be Transgender.
That is it.

Quote from: Jailyn on December 25, 2017, 12:39:30 PM
Willa, congrats!!!! Well you and I are on a similar time frame as it goes. I am 37 myself, started transitioning in March of this year. I came out fully to everyone in July of this year. I changed my facebook as well then but, I didn't do the youtube thing, I have thought about it. I am happy watching some other transgenders on youtube. I actually changed my name on my documents though and am so happy to be out even at my age. I am like you I can create a new account but, everything before has made me into who I am and I don't think there is a need necessarily to change I was a boy stuck with a woman's brain and now i am transitioning my outside to match that. I know many will not understand and others will. So my facebook still has all my old pics and new ones. So, welcome to Susan's and great to hear from others of a similar age.

I am sure there is more people from our generation who are afraid to be honest with themselves and may live their life with regret for what ever reason. I was raised in a homophobic environment, always being reinforced the typical male sterotypes. I was taught how to be a man all while suppressing my natural instincts. In order to fit in and not become a target for physical violence I went to some very dark places. Very few people liked the person I was but at least I was following the typical male role.

Quote from: Laurie on December 27, 2017, 11:13:02 PM
Hi Willa,

12 years??? My that's a long time to be a lurker.

So I did not come to Susan's Place everyday. There was times I would bury myself in mind distracting activities, I would get addicted to certain video games and all I would do is play video games. When I was playing video games I never found myself contemplating or dwelling on my issues with gender identity. Periodically I would pop in and out of this place. It has only been the past year that I really frequented this site. I have no regrets and no looking back for me.