Dear Nikki,
Reading what you shared tonight, what struck me most was how clearly you've known yourself all along — even in those years when you didn't have the language, support, or safety to say it out loud. That little voice you remember from childhood, the one that said *"I'm a girl,"* didn't disappear. It waited for you. And when the world finally gave you enough space to breathe, you listened.
I'm really glad you told the part about meeting that friend in college. So many of us find that first lifeline in someone who has walked a similar road. The two of you recognizing yourselves in each other, supporting one another, and stepping into transition side by side — that is something powerful. That kind of friendship becomes a kind of chosen family, and it sounds like she showed up for you in exactly the moment you needed someone to say, "You are not alone, and you don't have to keep hurting."
The way you describe the change — your confidence returning, your self-esteem coming back to life, the old version of you fading because she was never truly you — that is what living in our true sex looks like. You didn't become someone new. You finally stopped hiding the person you always were.
And you're right: for so many of us, transitioning doesn't just *improve* life. It saves it. Your family seeing that truth now only confirms what you already knew in your bones — that stepping into yourself was the moment everything began to heal.
I'm so glad you're still here. And I'm really glad you shared this. You never know who might read it and feel that same spark of recognition you once felt in that classroom, the moment that changed everything.
With warmth,
Susan
