If I have to I normally empahsis the fact that to be trans is a medical condition, ok so not strictly true, it does help people understand it is not a choice or a fetish and that real doctors see it as real.

Well my life wasn't exactly terrible pre-transition - I never went through much of a first puberty and I was hardly ever bullied and buried myself in academia, but there was always something "wrong", especially with "that part" and also the increasing discomfort of the male gender role - I would compare it to yawning on a bus - my pre transition life was like riding on a bus when you are tired - it's not as if you are deaf, you can still hear, yet when you "yawn" or transition, suddenly everything becomes clearer and louder, in a way you never realised it could be - that's how I see it.

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It's never too late to be who you might have been. - Mary Ann Evans

Yawning on a bus? I'd never have thought of putting it that way. What a wonderful idea!

Yes, I know that feeling and certainly, my first few months of transition felt like you have described.

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The Daily Turnout - King of the Throne Room

It's like watching your favourite TV show and finding that someone's taped over the best part with some incomprehensible gibberish.

And then watching everyone else talk about the ending, and having them laughing because you missed it and they will never show it again.

Woo! Depressing!

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Pay no attention to the moderator in a gimp mask behind the curtain.

There's always Youtube !

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Hellfrozeover be a pirate and a Transgenderzone moderator.

I don't stand under the TG umbrella anymore, it's way too bitchy and crowded in there but it's sunny out here

All my efforts at explaining being trans to people seem to be wasted, lol. No-one seems to connect with my thoughts and really understand, apart from the people here at tzone of course. I feel quite frustrated when people don't understand very well, it pleases me that they listen and try to though.

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Chrissy
Forums Moderator.

Always have faith and believe in yourself.
Never run from the truth.
Have the will to change your fate and your spirit will never die.
Check out the tzone team bios here: http://www.transgenderzone.com/bio.htm

*nods* Most people jsut don't understand how gender-stressed and gender-orientated a routine every day life is.

Yawning in the bus, heh

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I have to EDIT because I can't SPELL!!

The way I have explained it to people is by trying to put them in my shoes, albiet, as close as I can. I ask them how they'd feel if they woke up tommorow as the opposite sex.
Thier usual reaction to this is telling me that doesnt really work because I'd been brought up as a guy so I would not have had as big a problem as them just bieng dropped into it suddenly like in my example. My response is to tell them that your parents can feed you spinich until it comes out of your ears, but that wont make you like it. You're either born to like spinach or not and you're either born to have a male or female gender, not because of what your parents tried to teach you.

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I look back at most of my life and think "WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?!??"

I never really explained it much to be honest. One of my friends was going on about a birth certificate being something that shouldn't be changed so I had to explain my situation to her for that one. Since I'm IS and it wasn't discovered at birth, I basically told her that it wasn't my fault that they made a mistake and didn't realise I was neither gender and now that I am a gender then why should I have to put up with the male one on my birth certificate when I wasn't male in the first place.

I suppose I've got it a bit easier as far as explaining goes although alot of people do expect me to look better than a transsexual due to being IS which is stupid because I still went through about 90% of male puberty so there isn't much difference. I probably got it just as bad there and some annoying people are all "Oooh you've got it soo much easier". Well no.

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Hellfrozeover be a pirate and a Transgenderzone moderator.

I don't stand under the TG umbrella anymore, it's way too bitchy and crowded in there but it's sunny out here

hey everyone im back lol.

Well I can start off by saying that its more of a psycological issue. My brain
says that I'm a girl, while the hormones and your body says that your a guy.
in the end you just have to accept it as what you are, or you will hold it in for to long and then bad things happen. in my past it has gone a bit wierd for me, now everything is going smoothly, im getting good grades in school, im starting to grow Bbuds (Breasts), and i can support myself money wise.

the big mistake i made was holding it in. if anyone wants to talk about this just msn me or aim.

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the only thing that keeps me alive is the wish to have kids and teach them what i have learnd

I disagree with it being a psychological issue. Most transsexuals are perfectly mentally stable and usually when they aren't, alot of it is due to the stress caused by developing the wrong way physically. There's nothing wrong with transsexuals psychologically, it's the body that's wrong imo.

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Hellfrozeover be a pirate and a Transgenderzone moderator.

I don't stand under the TG umbrella anymore, it's way too bitchy and crowded in there but it's sunny out here

For me it's like I've been living my life as a fake, like an actor playing a role and pretending to be someone he isn't. As a child I was always afraid that people would somehow find out that I was really a boy inside. Though I always felt more comfortable dressing as a boy, playing with boys, playing the sort of games boys play, I was always very quick to point out very forcefully "I'm a GIRL, dammit!" even though I rarely looked or acted like one. As the years have gone by it gets harder and harder to keep up the act. Now if I do, I just feel clumsy and awkward and uncomfortable. The last three years have been the tipping point for me, where I have got to the point where I really cannot keep up the playacting any more. It's exhausting. All I want is just to be able to relax and be myself for a change.

==Steve

hmmm, for me its like reality has never really felt 'real' everythings like a book, or a tv drama. i can also relate to Mike's prison analogy. Life from about 11/12 onwards has just felt more and more like a prison sentence.

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"...risk something, take back whats yours, say something that you know they might attack you for..."

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http://www.gamespot.com/users/Ubersuntzu/games_table?mode=own
Because I love my games and I think you should too. >_>

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the only thing that keeps me alive is the wish to have kids and teach them what i have learnd