Quote from: Miniar on November 24, 2009, 06:54:09 PM
Transition "obviously" changes who you are.
It's a powerful experience that changes your hormonal balance, appearance, the reactions you get from your surroundings and so on.
If we say that who we are is biological, then the hormonal changes of transition changes who we are. If we say that who we are is the sum of our experiences, then transition changes who we are. (Personally, I believe that who we are is biological and sum of experience combined, topped off with just a little touch of "spiritual" influence from our soul.) Either way, transition changes you.
You would have changed some way anyway, but nothing can change you exactly the same as transition will change you.
We change all the time. I will not be the exact same man tomorrow as I was when I woke up yesterday.
Our personality stays the same in it's principle components, but these components are reactionary. When we change who we are and how our surroundings react to us, we change which aspects of our personality are the strongest.
It doesn't "change" our personality's components themselves, but it changes our personality in it's expression.
A bubbly, giggly girl, will thus be, far more bubbly and giggly when her surroundings allow her to be a girl. etc.. etc..
Yeah... I may have changed a lot but the "He" part still engages autopilot whenever I'm in a place thats too much for the real side to handle... Yet if I'm either tripping or in an environment where its NOT BS, and not only accepting, but a place where they DO see it, and aren't the type of people to look at my old license and say, "Sorry hun... You were hot as a boy," And other things like that, or still treat me like a guy.... My brain just kind of glitched out there.
But the point is is that environment is a large factor for me. I'm more her if I'm talking to my one distant friend on the phone, much more, than lets say... When I'm in class or most public places. Its hard to really let yourself flow out right if you are constantly aware that most people around you will NEVER truly see you the way you are inside. Like in public.... I either try my hardest to, "Be a girl," With my mannerisms, and I fail just as much as I do when I'm acting all grunty like a boy. I'll go back and forth depending on how motivated I feel... Yet I still fail both ways. Its when I'm sleep deprived and have facial stubble, ironically, that I pass at least for a few seconds... Statistically speaking... But I'll get so many problems in these environments and I'll realize I'm not acting like myself and it will sometimes get to me. Like, "That wasn't me talking like that... That was just autopilot and random data. Crap."
Yet I'll go to my local transman friends house, and I KNOW he takes me seriously. I know he sees it in me and isn't effing lying just to be nice... And he doesn't say stuff that hurts unless we're both on that topic in which case we both laugh about it instead. I'll act more like myself around him, and I get more "Bubbly" near him. Not bubbly in the sense of feeling like he's hot, but just how I would act normally and should act. Brain hurts... Hard to articulate my speak correctly (another allergic attack last night... I ended up taking liquid benedryl and hitting a pipe like twice to relax the muscles. Pipe sounds like a bad idea, but it stopped my esophagus from convulsing, so it was obviously a good thing. It went away, but I was and still am, understandably exhausted. Benedryl messes me up longer than it should. It'll stay in my system for a day at least and I'll just feel groggy. Plus I'm still in slight pain from the attack... So I'm sorry if I sound STUPID)
So I do act more "Bubbly" around him, and when I'm talking to my distant person I love. I'm starting to get better with the public thing, but its NEVER easy even if I"m fulltime. Guess I should give it time considering I've only been "Fulltime" less than six months. Been on HRT for a longer time... So I'm more used to that... RELATIVELY. Emotions are not new to me cause I cried a lot of my adolescence, but its ironically my pubescent minds feelings of "Vulnerability", and raw weakness that add to my anxiety and make him come out and me not pass...
Sorry... Ranty.... Thread continue (Goes back to sleep)