1 Month Full-Time

Well, I'm almost there, just four more days, and it will be 1 month full-time.

What's happened?

Well, all kinds. And not a lot.

First and foremost, let me say that it is fantastic to just be one person all the time. Not loading and unloading my purse, worrying about keeping my mannerisms in check, etc. Been great using my femme voice full-time to try and train my larynx better. From this standpoint, it's like I've been preparing to move to a new country (planet?) and now I'm finally here. I've never been here before, so it's pretty exciting :)

Oh, not exciting in a big way. Just in that "Oh, I'm going to make spaghetti for dinner, I really like spaghetti" kind of way. It's been pretty matter-of-fact, the routine of everything, but if I stop and think about things I can't help but do a little happy-dance.

My morning routine is now routine. Getting dressed is still a tad stressful as my wardrobe has some gaps and I have to be more careful about laundry. I'm still stressing a bit about my weight; I need to lose some of it.

Work contacts have been so far 100% accepting and trying hard to use the right name and pronouns. I try and tell them how much I appreciate it every chance I get. Customer meetings have all gone great, and that great awful dread of using the telephone is starting to subside (I'm very self-conscious about my voice).

More than once, I've received the most flattering comment I think someone could make - "If I hadn't known you before I'd never have guessed..." I think I glow for at least a day after someone tells me that. Even if they're just being nice.

Next month marks the big kick-off of fall events in the technical communities in which I'm involved. I expect I'll have an interesting time re-introducing myself to folks there.

I don't have any funny stories or anything yet. Slightly disappointing. I don't think I'm going to have as good material as this for awkward stories ever again :-)