A Sorta Kinda Confession/Unrelenting Thought Type of Thing

     So I'm here, I'm trans and have been officially medically transitioning for almost a year now. I've told many close friends, some of whom have exited my life or made it clear I'm not welcome in theirs and I've exited their lives. I've been openly moving towards identifying as female by using a new name and dressing differently (small steps mostly, I'm not very confident in my ability to pass as female so wearing dresses or other things has been confined to when I'm alone). I've stepped up a few times and tried to assert my seriousness about my decision and although I am not being so adamant at times, it's only because correcting certain things at certain times isn't going to be a productive action.

   And basically since I started, I told some friends that I would not partake in a relationship from now on. I said that my decision to transition puts me a situation where I would be going against one of my personal beliefs by dating anyone.

Before I continue with this thought, I need 

to make it clear that these thoughts, beliefs and opinions 

are NOT judgments I lay on anyone else. I don't think anyone 

should follow my rules or beliefs unless they actually believe 

the same thing and I would not judge anyone else based on their 

differences in any area that does not harm others. Happiness, 

safety, respect, loyalty, and following one's own belief system 

are the keys to keeping me from judging.

So if I say I feel as though I am a female, in spirit, that would lead to the guess that I would then be attracted to men. Generally, women date men. Clearly I'm not saying that that's the only possibility but it's the first assumption made when I've told people about my gender identity.

If I were to be attracted to men, my personal belief is that that would constitute as homosexuality. I am biologically male and that is a personal belief that I do not want to break (again, a personal belief ONLY holding myself accountable to, absolutely no one else is or would be wrong for this action, in this exact context) so dating men is already out of the question. And secondly, I am not only not attracted to men but I absolutely adore women. If I was attracted to men, I would not hold this belief so...basically that's not an option.

Now here's the biggest struggle with my transition, I am absolutely attracted to women. In fact that's one of the biggest things that kept me from transitioning for so long, I figured if I was this attracted to biological females and I look male enough then I can just deal with my inner thoughts and feelings without physically doing anything. But in the end of that thought process, I ignored myself to a harmful degree and that nearly pushed me to end myself. Not ideal, not an option.

So I am now, many months into my transition, having an inner struggle that I don't know if there's an outcome here that I'll be okay with:
   If I say I identify as a female and I live as a woman then again my personal belief comes into play, meaning I cannot live a homosexual lifestyle and be okay with myself. But on the other hand, I find myself wanting love, affection more and more everyday and having nothing to fill that void with.

   This debate I keep wrestling with has been sped up by having a specific person in mind, though it's a person I know for a fact is not even slightly interested in me. And the person isn't really important, the important issue right now is that I am feeling more and more needy for that kind of attention and it's starting to burn kinda badly. For, like, 7 months I was able to shut those 'hopeless romantic' kind of thoughts and feelings off almost completely and suddenly the flood gates seemed to open up recently.

All of this has me thinking thoughts like, "Am I only transitioning because I can't find love?" Or "If I met someone, someone really special, could I accept living a male life for them and for the life I'd be  apart of then?" These thoughts are good to have, questioning your beliefs and decisions will either reaffirm your decisions or cause you to potentially make a change you may need to make.

One of the few things about me that made sense before starting my transition was that I have had a deep burning desire to be in a "madly in love" relationship. I relate myself to a "Ted Mosby" type of spirit and that's a very male part of me that's clearly still alive and strong. Not that I'm confessing to being wrong here, I'm not. Even if I do stop transitioning in the future, it won't be a 'wrong' because I would only stop if I knew that I was making the wrong choice.

Two things about this entire rant:

   1. I wasn't exactly doing well in the love department...ever as a male. The most "but it's Robin" type of person in my life was a girl who I knew when I was 6, a girl who I searched for over a 20 year span. I made it my life's entire goal to find her and I did. I found her in 2010. And I contacted her, got her phone number and we spent about 2 weeks texting nonstop...then she saw something I said on facebook about my feelings toward her and she completely stopped responding to me. It was completely my fault that I lost any chance and all, I was dumb enough to think she wouldn't see that one random comment even though we were connected on facebook. She wasn't the same girl I knew or the girl I was searching for, I'm not writing this because of her or that issue. The reason I'm bringing this up is to say that's the closest I've ever come to being in love. At 6 years old, I was ready to spend my entire life with this girl and I was so sure that I could have won her heart that I didn't really let myself fall in love with anyone for the next 20 years. I had crushes but in the back of my mind I thought I was made for that girl. So in 2010 when I found her and found out I wasn't 'the one' for her, I had absolutely no path in life. None. That's the closest I've ever come to love, I've been burned by many and left by many and I've regretfully treated a few people very badly and that's the end of my love life as a male for 35 years. So I'm not exactly giving up some great love life by transitioning.

2. I'm so much happier by so many more seemingly little things now than I ever have been. Things like my name and being introduced and being complimented for pretty things, for example. My borther introduced me today as Layla and on the inside I was so proud and honored and happy to hear that name that I couldn't help but smile. I have an inner desire to take care of myself for the first time in my life.

So I have some things to think about and hopefully SOMETHING will clear up for me in some way. I'm gonna stop typing so I can over think and over analyze everything that happens. So...good night all.

Updates and Current Thoughts (April 11th 2018)

     A few thoughts:

One thing I've been thinking about a lot is how to get through depression issues. I'm sure you read that and tho0ught, "Well duh." amirite? Okay that may sound dumb but for me, it's a big step to go
from "I want to end myself, why." to "I think I might be able to get through these issues that have been owning me for years now."

My objective for years was focused on when I'm going to die and stop having to deal with all this and fighting that was very hard. Years and years of thinking that way did a lot to keep me down and to be slowly but progressively moving away from that mentally is a very positive thing.

And I'm not saying I'm all better now or even close; I know it's not good to have moments where I think it would be better for everyone if I wasn't alive. I know that and I am continually aware of the fact that I need to be better, especially when I have enough free time and physically ability to do things I need to do, but I'm trying very hard to breathe and take i each moment that I feel any better and every positive moment. I'm trying.

     That actually leads me to one thing my cousin has been talking about and causing me to think about, I'm working on making a plan for the future. The last few weeks/months have felt like a dream or a pause for me. I've gone to work and tried to act like I'm doing things like an adult but I've really just kinda existed and as soon as I wasn't doing things I need to like go to work or whatever I have kinda shut down. I've been like that for a while and that's the other end of my mental growth. Two steps forward and one step back, right?

I'm trying to make that step back a smaller and smaller one.

Updates:

     I've been on estradiol for just about 3 months and there still has been very little physical changes. I keep like staring at the mirror hoping to be shocked at some drastic difference from the day before. And I know the whole watched pot thing...I'm doing exactly that...I know. Doesn't make me feel any better.

     I've been praying more and working on letting God into my life a little more than before and...it's not as easy as it sounds. I'm trying though. Pray for me if you pray and if you don't, pray anyway; if you think it doesn't mean anything then it doesn't mean anything to do it either.

     And lastly, an old friend just messaged me as I was writing this. I had a friend from college that I really thought would not be even willing to talk to me knowing I'm trans. He's a Christian, like me, and I'm very happy to say we talked a little and he's not going to shun me. Really encouraging to hear from other Christians that are willing to not shut me out and actually be a friend. Maybe some day he'll turn from his evil Pittsburgh ways and embrace Philadelphia (if he reads this, he'll get this inside joke)

Early Morning Thinking

     I woke up very early this morning, the exact time I remember is Stupid O'Clock. and I laid in bed remembering my dream. They say you should remain as relaxed as you can and replay your dreams in order to remember them best and so that's my routine when I have a vivid dream.

I dreamt that I took a long long time putting together a book for my friend, I put hours of work into selecting the pictures and arranging them in the best way possible. I took the pictures (because even in my dreams I take the best pictures) and physically made the book, I remembered all the hard work I put into the book and just as my friend opened the package, I was so ready for him to love it.

He opened it and it looked like it was made in 1984, the pictures were all blocky and the lettering for captions were all improperly spaced and the pages were crooked and uneven. I wanted to freak out, cry, throw it at whoever ruined all my hard work but the biggest thing was I remembered feeling so embarrassed. I ended up apologizing to him over and over, he graciously thanked me and I could tell he thought I just did a terrible job but that I tried my hardest; like he thought I wasn't mentally capable of doing any better.

In dream fashion, the next thing I can remember is I was microwaving something and it suddenly started smoking. I opened the microwave door and found that someone put a metal pan in there with my food, either I didn't see that when I put my food in there or someone put it in there and turned it back on. I was trying to avoid a fire alarm going off from the smoke and kept blowing till there was no more smoke.

     After replaying those dreams, I sat up and did that thing where I let my thoughts kinda run free, I went from one completely random and weird thought go to another that may be unrelated. To keep this diary entry shorter than a novel, I'll cut out the many completely crazy and random thoughts I went through and skip right to the most impactful one.

One of my best friends asked me while she was doing my makeup for my first time ever if I'm sure I want to go through with being a girl. She's been the most supportive friend from the moment I told her and wasn't questioning what I'm going through or anything like that; she was asking because being a 'guy' is SO MUCH EASIER than being a girl.

That conversation kinda replayed in my head and I thought about something that is kinda scaring me now in life;
     I have been living this weird situation for so long, I've felt and understood things as a female but was trapped by a masculine mask (say THAT ten times fast) and have been trying to escape that for so long that I learned a ton of ways to survive as a male. I learned how to do things like talk  and get ready for anything in 5 minutes and walk and act like a 'guy'

I did all those things even while hating a lot of them and then I opened up about being trans and FINALLY was able to begin acting the way I want to. I'm now slowly letting more and more of the things I actually like out...and I don't know how to be the girl I always felt inside.

I'm noticing that I don't know how to be a girl and walk and talk and do little things (although I do have many feminine mannerisms so it's not like absolutely nothing but there are a lot of things)

     I wish I could just be a 'guy' and happily live that way, it would be seriously so much easier and cheaper but I can't ignore all that I feel and know about myself. I want so badly to be good at being Layla rather than go back to being HORRIBLE at being VJ.

I told another friend that I've never been a 'guy' or 'one of the guys' even though I've been a male all my life. I'm done with that and while I'm scared about not being good at being Layla, I'm so much happier being a beginner Layla than trying to be okay as VJ.