Unsure if I would want to be a teenager again.

Unless I was a CIS female I should have been raised as!

Even then it would be trying times too, teens go through a lot.


Chrissy

                              "Unless I was a CIS female I should have been raised as!"

I absolutely agree Chrissy!!!

Quote from: ChrissyRyan on March 27, 2025, 08:46:33 PMUnsure if I would want to be a teenager again.

Unless I was a CIS female I should have been raised as!

Even then it would be trying times too, teens go through a lot.

I can relate. But with my family dynamic (abusive stepfather), I would prefer to wait until after my teen years when I became an adult. Maybe in a different family it would have been good as a teen.

Lori, your dream wish can be any way you want it. It's yours, it's happy and it's perfect.

I wish we are all teenaged girls in the same school being happy just being together.

Quote from: ChrissyRyan on March 27, 2025, 08:46:33 PMUnsure if I would want to be a teenager again.

Unless I was a CIS female I should have been raised as!

Even then it would be trying times too, teens go through a lot.


Chrissy

I kind of think I wouldn't want my life to be any other way than it has been. I get the argument that you want to be cis. To have the things you missed out on. But for me... I would not be me had I not gone through everything I have gone through. Met everyone I have met. Learned from all the wise and wonderful people I've been privileged to meet on this journey.

No, it hasn't been easy. It's been bloody hard. But I think I would do it all over again and maybe learn a few things sooner. I don't need to be cis to be me. I just need to be me, and love who that is.

We are who we are because of the way life has made us. To change that is to not be you anymore. Embrace you, and who you are. And what you can offer to the world. Be proud of that.

Sephirah I agree that we should be proud of who we are and how we got here but it is fun to play "what if?".  I think of it as changing the cable channels of our imagination and just playing like I wish we all could be on the Queen Mary 2 sipping champagne in our evening gowns. 

Think of it as a dress up party.

I am grateful for how things are.

Surprisingly nice at times for the most part.

Life does have difficulties though but that is to be expected.

Chrissy

Quote from: Emma1017 on March 29, 2025, 06:55:00 PMSephirah I agree that we should be proud of who we are and how we got here but it is fun to play "what if?".  I think of it as changing the cable channels of our imagination and just playing like I wish we all could be on the Queen Mary 2 sipping champagne in our evening gowns. 

Think of it as a dress up party.

That's fair. I think it just terrifies me that by not having it in my life, I would have been one of these vapid, ignorant people who promote hate on anyone who's different.

You have to know it to understand it.

I'm not getting that deep, I'm just playing in the sandbox. There's shovels and pails for everyone. Lollipops on me. 🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭🍭

More than a dozen days in, and I have learned so much from the students. In addition to being typical teenagers, I am impressed by how casually they are LGBTQ students.

They simply are.

I have shared with some of them that I am transgender, and unlike adults I have told, my dramatic gender reveal is met with a smile and a shrug. It is part of our conversation, not the entire conversation.

I recognize that they are fortunate to be in NYC, where there is general public support for the LGBTQ community. Their threats are more localized with family and/or neighborhood aggressions, but this city is a place where they can find their own place, like this high school, to simply be themselves. Sadly, smaller communities make it harder for LGBTQ teenagers to find their gender refuge.

This school is the way life should be for LGBTQ students.

They are safe, and they are happy. It makes me happy as well as I become more a part of this unique community. It's not perfect, but they make the efforts worthwhile.

They are lucky to have you as a teacher and role model. I agree that this is how every school should be. We just don't have enough Emmas to teach them all.

Youth are our future!

It's not just "Emma's", they need a community that supports them rather than attack them.

It is tough enough to deal with all of this hate as an adult but these are teenagers dealing with rejection of family and friends, a government outright attacking them and religions damning them to hell, forget about their own self doubts and self hate.

It is all so sad but I continue to hope that people will recover their common sense and their sense of humanity.

Quote from: Emma1017 on March 30, 2025, 11:55:17 AMIt's not just "Emma's", they need a community that supports them rather than attack them.

It is tough enough to deal with all of this hate as an adult but these are teenagers dealing with rejection of family and friends, a government outright attacking them and religions damning them to hell, forget about their own self doubts and self hate.

It is all so sad but I continue to hope that people will recover their common sense and their sense of humanity.

Yes, it is sad.

Quote from: Emma1017 on March 29, 2025, 06:55:00 PMI agree that we should be proud of who we are and how we got here but it is fun to play "what if?".

Imagination is one of the best safety valves the human race has, but more than that, without it, there would be no aspiration, no great music, art, or literature. Nor would there be hormone replacement if someone hadn't had a dream about how life might be improved for perimenopausal women... and without that dream, and another that led to synthetic T, where would members be now?

So, Sephirah's right, accepting we are and how we got here is key to self assurance, and ultimately, happiness, but getting there doesn't preclude 'what ifs'. I've had many what ifs over the years and amazingly, some of them happened and got integrated into who I am, so there's room for both. What ifs don't always lead to anything at all and some what ifs can bother folk if they don't see them for what they are, but now and again, a what if can change everything. Such is the power of imagination.

My imagination has gotten me through some pretty dire times when reality was too painful to process.

You need both as needed.

Talking to yourself can be helpful.  So if you catch me mumbling it may be to myself!

Chrissy

Thats called talking to someone sensible!! Its when you answer yourself back you have to be worried!

Quote from: davina61 on March 31, 2025, 11:16:24 AMIts when you answer yourself back you have to be worried!

Or start losing arguments. 

I use talking to myself as a way to get a seat on the subway. People don't trust crazy people. 😱🤪