How you shouldn't go about this.

[CosmicJoke]

Hi everyone. I think something I've found in my transition to female (I think this applies to any transition) is you don't want to box yourself in.

I had alot of dissatisfaction as a boy but there's things I liked from that part of my life that I still like now. I think it's kind of going about it the wrong way to say "I'm a girl now so I can't like these same things from when I was a boy." Again, I think that applies to any gender transition you are making.

I'm just curious if anyone else has discovered the same in their own gender transition?

[Asche]

Perhaps it's because I've been a feminist for a long time, long before it ever occurred to me that I might be trans, but I can't think of anything that "being a girl" would exclude me or any girl or woman from.

But then, I say I didn't transition to "become a woman" (whatever that means), I transitioned to become myself.

[Charlotte_Ringwood]

I might be wrong, but would not expect too much of ones core interests and values to change when transitioning. It's possible that some people take on certain personality traits whilst in the closet so to speak and maybe to push a narrative of their public gender. I'm not sure.

Personally not much changed. I largely lived my life as I wanted and presented many feminine traits. Some of my hobbies I guess are masculine leaning if that's really s thing (debatable) and I retain those. Really it's the inside feeling that changes for me. A different sensitivity, a different feeling of warmth and comfort. It's really like a magical warm veil that now envelopes what was always me. Living the same me but with a calmer, warmer experience.

Externally lots is changing, but that is all to feed the inner peace and softness I'm looking for. I still really love my previous male self. But I don't have such strong dysphoria as many. I think I can gender bend at will sometimes.

Not sure if that all makes much sense, but is just how I feel.

[Lori Dee ✅]

I have always been the outdoorsy type. Since I was a kid, I enjoyed camping, hiking, fishing, hunting, and treasure hunting. I don't go fishing or hunting anymore. I don't kill for sport, and I can't eat what I would hunt, so I just don't. Treasure hunting has coalesced into gold mining and rockhounding. Even that has become more difficult with age, but I enjoy it too much to quit.

None of that has changed since transition. My spirituality and core values remain the same.

Like Asche, I never intended to change to become anything. My transition has always been about changing my body to align with who I am.

[Northern Star Girl ✅]

@CosmicJoke

Dear CosmicJoke:
Thank you for sharing and posting your thoughts and comments regarding this interesting subject.

Obviously there are those that are experiencing the very same things that you are describing,
        HOWEVER
once I started my transition, and especially when I went Full-Time, I completely left my
previously male self behind... far behind. 

I had fully embraced what it means to be a woman in my thoughts, actions, and appearance.

Very soon after I went Full-Time I then I quit may male job, which was a good job as an
Executive as the head of the Accounting Department of a middle-sized multi-state company.
I then within a week relocated to a new home and a new small rural town to start my own
woman-owned CPA, Financial Advising and Accounting business. 

Once I arrived there as Danielle and took care of finding a new home and then meeting
with the town leaders to find office space, I found complete acceptance as the newly arrived
Blonde Blue Eyed Woman.
The town is full of loggers, fishermen, and sportsmen,  and as a an unintentional
result I quickly became of interest to the single men and women in town. 
I felt like I was being "hunted" ... hence my 2nd Blog thread includes
many details regarding my new experiences including developing friendships as a woman,
handling my new business as a woman, and even the big, uncharted, and sometimes scary
experiences of dating as a woman.

                              I am the Hunted Prey : Danielle's Chronicles
               
All 4 of my Forum Blogs are shown toward the bottom of any of my postings.

Please know that I am not dismissing your own experiences... each of our journeys are
unique because of employment, relationships, and other personal factors.

Again CosmicJoke, thank you for sharing and posting your salient thoughts regarding
gender transitioning.

Warm Regards, Danielle [Northern Star Girl]

Hi everyone. I think something I've found in my transition to female (I think this applies to any transition) is you don't want to box yourself in.

I had alot of dissatisfaction as a boy but there's things I liked from that part of my life that I still like now. I think it's kind of going about it the wrong way to say "I'm a girl now so I can't like these same things from when I was a boy." Again, I think that applies to any gender transition you are making.

I'm just curious if anyone else has discovered the same in their own gender transition?

[Simplycause]

So, as someone who's had this epiphany, accepted it and now rapidly trying to align myself and my life in this...it's not really a new reality but acceptance I see it this way.

Most of my friends through my life have been girls/women. Not exclusively but the vast majority of people I've been close with (and not romantically involved) are female.

My parents when I was very little, my dad's best friend and who we became neighbors with they had two girls and they were like the only house with in 1 mile I could go play with if they were home. One was a year older and one is two years younger. I moved away, spent summers visiting and still went over to their house. They rode 4 wheelers, dirt bikes, played sports. I raced flat track, still ride motorcycles. But they also played with dolls and barbies. We played video games. I had a Nintendo and Sega Genesis, they had a super Nintendo so usually me and the oldest girl would play Super Nintendo or she'd get her 4 wheeler and I'd get my dirt bike and we'd be gone.

The guy my dad worked for at the time, owned a Yamaha dealership and his little girl was 4 (i was 5) and we started racing Flat Track at the same time. She absolutely cooked everyone. Partly because all her stuff was factory new and professionally maintained but also she had no fear.

I like to ride motorcycles. I watch all sorts of sports, I've kind of moved on from it and I'll occasionally still watch a big fight but I was a boxing and combat sports junkie for a long time. I watched the first UFC on PPV with my dad.

I don't want or expect those interests to go away, but I was also always comfortable doing girl things. Even without this gender epiphany I've always had this I guess for lack of a better term classical libertarian view of anyone can and should be able to do what ever they want. A boy wants to play with Barbies awesome, a girl wants to learn to be a blacksmith also cool.

Now what the epiphany and acceptance has added is WHY I was more comfortable playing with and being friends with a lot more then I ever was with boys even though I loved playing sports

[Pema]

I'm coming at this from a very different angle. For me, it's not about trying to be (or not be) something that society has defined. That's what @TanyaG has described as "swapping scripts;" it's just adopting a different set of conditioned patterns, which is something I've always found incredibly limiting.

My path has been one of discarding what is clearly not "me" or "mine" and identifying what truly is. Labeling it or choosing it from a "gender box" has no role (or meaning) for me. In this way, I'm simply trying to discover and express *who I actually am*, not which of the pre-defined categories I'm adopting.

When I do that, what I find is that I much more closely fit the stereotype of what my society calls "feminine" than its "masculine."

Similarly, the women I've always been attracted to have been those who were most authentically themselves, not the ones who chose to conform to a feminine ideal. Honestly, I can say that the people I find interesting are those who aren't trying to be like anyone else.

But, yes, that's quite a bit more work than choosing options from a menu.