Unintentional Learning

     I have this memory, from whenever I was in school and I walked into a lunch room. Not just one specific time but many, many times throughout many different schools and across so many stages of my life. I would walk in to a full or filling lunch room and see groups of friends sitting down; talking or laughing or showing each other something they think their friends like. Kids would walk in behind me and be called to, motioned to sit next to friends. I'd see some kids sitting down without being asked, because they didn't have to be called over or ask to sit down and I remember watching that be cool with whomever they sat by.

...then there was me...

Each second became harder, somehow, to find a place to belong. I tried so hard to just be invisible so I could survey the area without being noticed. But as I have learned, I can't will myself to be unseen. I felt the awkward pouring over me, I felt kids' eyes hitting me and I felt the panic of the fact that even though I looked out of place; like I just needed ONE person (not friend, because...what's that) to pity me and ask me to sit with them...they didn't care.

All that I just explained took seconds, maybe a minute in real time but to me every single time that happened it was longer than any clock had to show. And it wasn't the fact that I was awkward that hurt so much, it wasn't that I needed to sit or even that I had no friends (most of the time at least) It was the fact that no one cared enough for real to help me out of that misery. Even people who claimed to be 'my friend' didn't care if I was going through those torturous moments.

So I learned that I was able to make myself invisible. My superpower, right?! There were times when I would stand in a corner of a cafeteria, lean against a wall and eat my lunch and not one person would say a word to me. I wish I could say this is just a metaphor or an exaggerated example of things that happened but this has happened to me many times, in real life. And it hurt worse every time I went through it.

     If that was just a memory and I was hurt but learned from it, that's cool. But it affected me in a pretty big way. Dissecting what that did to me:

-I learned that there's no sympathy for people like that (like me) and for some time I was actually scared that I might be a sociopath because I developed the ability to just not care, like there was some switch and I found a way to turn it off.

-I learned that I don't matter to people. I heard people talk about how they could never just ignore someone when they have no friends but those were some of the same people who saw me standing there and had absolutely no emotional reaction to seeing someone on the brink of panic attacks or on the verge of giving up and they didn't even flinch. If they can't handle seeing someone in pain and don't have even an inkling of emotion when they see me...they're not the problem, I am.

-I learned to avoid groups all together or to show that I don't want to be in groups.

-I learned to hide from social situations and eventually I learned to hide from situations that hurt me the same way, even when it wasn't as bad as I thought it felt like it to me and it hurt the same as if it was the worst case scenario.

-I learned to shut down when an overwhelming amount of emotional weight hit me the way it did then.

     And these are just a few things that I unintentionally leanred from those seemingly small moments. Those teachings have bled into areas of my life that I am told regularly "You need to just stop." except there's no second part to those commands, the part that explains how to 'just stop' and I'm left learning that I'm not good enough even stronger...like a terrible truth on steroids. HULK SMASH all over me again and again.

They Can't All be Good Days, Right?

     

     So it's been a few days since I last wrote in this and that's not a good thing. I created this diary to express my most inner demons and reveal to myself (and others who may be going through something similar) and while I believe I've made some monster strides in the way of progress, it's not all sunshine and roses in the depths of my mind. So this is a warning that it's going to get kinda dark in this entry.

     The last few weeks haven't been good. I haven't spent time with anyone and I've been masking the negative by smiling but it turns out that masking demons NEVER works for me. Ever.
So I recently lost a large portion of my friends and my entire support system, the same group that has kept me alive at times.

The same group that has taught me more than anyone else ever has, combined. And that is monumental, vast...enormous to me. Nearly impossible for me to just move on from and unlike a toxic relationship, this group was and is a good group. I refuse to treat them like they're  anything less than great...even though this situation is hurting me more than almost anything I've been through in my time here on earth.

     And as much as I wish I could say, "But even through this, I've overcome...I've succeeded in...I' haven't let that get me down...etc." But the truth is my transition and my psyche and my enjoyment has been at a very low for weeks now.

I've been depressed, I've considered what if I stop my transition, I've thought about is it worth going through this giant change and I've also thought hard about ending myself to fix the entire situation. I
heard that someone who was decently close to me who told a friend that they don't want me around their kids. But we're still friends. That makes me feel like a monster, a monster that shouldn't be in society...a feeling I've identified with for a very long time; something that I used to feel the need to prote4ct everyone by not subjecting them to my existence. I thought of myself as Angel from the old tv show.

     Angel, for those who don't know of the show, was a vampire with a soul. Played by David Boreanaz, the character was good but everyone who got close to him ended up getting hurt or killed.
He saw that and started being mean to those he cared about so they'd go away and he watched them from afar, always seeing that their lives were better without him in it.

There's one specific part of the series where he had a son and his son was so messed up by having a father who's a vampire that his life was just awful. So Angel had a chance through some television magic to erase his son's memories of being his son; he lived in a household where he had a normal life in a family that was like the stereotypical happy family.

Angel loved his son, Connor, so much that he erased himself from Connor's life...Connor was happy and had a good life...because Angel wasn't a part of it.

Now, I know it's just a silly tv show and there was insanely terrible story lines (like Angel turning into a puppet, no lie...smh) but the character's inner struggles have resonated with me from the first time I watched the show. And the ironic part of this is I always felt like a monster because I was this fake thing that had to hide what I truly was; getting away from the metaphorical here:

I had this female persona who I treated like an evil Jekyll that came out when I couldn't hold in the energy (only when I was alone). I  hated that inside, I had all these feminine desires and thoughts and hopes and dreams, I hated that I wasn't 'one of the guys' like ever and when I tried nothing ever went well.

So I would stay away from people I cared about and I'd end up going back and forth. One minute I meet someone and get to know then, I'd spend time with them and realize that, "Hey, this person is really cool. Hmm...I hope I don't ruin their life...I should do them a favor and back away..."

And because I'm not awkward in the least, I'd back away in THE MOST IMPERFECT MOMENT EVER and it would be just the worst. And adding to that the fact that I had a giant problem knowing what to say a lot as a kid (...and now), I didn't ever explain what was happening even when I explained it I didn't explain myself.

So for most of my life, the reason I did this was because I was lying about who I was and so now I'm trying to embrace the person I am inside...and here I am considering suicide again...because I lost just about any outside communication, that fellowship that customers don't give me and facebook doesn't give me and texting isn't enough of.

Last week, I was back to that point where I had to convince myself not to end myself that day...and I had to try very very hard to convince myself. The end result of that mental debate was only won because I didn't have the means to do anything serious. It's kinda like I was too lazy to kill myself and my brain made that so strong that I didn't do it. I'm also very scared of pain.

     I'm trying to put things in my life that might talk myself into being excited about the future, I'm trying. I'm scared of the future, I'm scared of being alone, I'd rather die and the possibility of being so alone (like I have been lately), it's real convincing of as future of only having customers as 'friends' which is the most fake kind of friendships. I hate being fake, I hate being a liar and I hate being alone.

A few friends who have stuck by me have been truly life saving, even through these terrible thoughts. I'm trying to make plans for next year and I'm trying to do things that are future motivated, I'm hoping that the good can outweigh the bad here...cauuse I need it to.

Last thoughts:
     I haven't been praying or reading my bible lately and I don't like that. I need to take the baggage I gave Him off and try to really lean on my God. I want to do things that are fruitful and things that benefit others and I need God to do that. Isaiah 63:9 says "in all their affliction, He was afflicted," ad I want Him to rejoice because I rejoice in the future. Pray for me, if you don't believe then you're not doing anyhting but taking a few minuites to do something for me and I appreciate that. Just say outloud, "Help him." that's enough for my God to hear...cause I need help.

Thanks.

Fan, You're About to Get Hit

    As I look around my world,  I feel that

"How did I get here? 

I'm not actually here, am I" 

kind of feel. Life keeps going and days rmble on like a boulder rolling down a small unimpressive hill; the ironic thing is every day seems to drag on forever but at the end of it, it feels like seconds ago I was just waking up and then in a heartbeat, it's four days later. I often see time as a haze of interesting things and boring empty days of the week and terrible vengefully bad days...and a few solid good times too, said I reluctantly. 

     This is as poetic as I will get, I promise. The cold hard thruth is I often just want the day to end and it never seems to make anything better when it does. Ya know that thought, "Tomorrow is a new day. Just as long as THIS day is over." well that thought is my refuge from my black cloud of a life but it doesn't restart anything. The same bad stuff, negative thoughts, unending bad luck and awkward attempts at being less than bitter/sad happen; I do have good times and I do have some good luck but the ratio kills me. 

 The example of my luck I think of regularly is:

     Living the life I do, getting a great deal on a tractor trailer 

would be really great...but will do nothing for me at all. 

So while it could be a blessing, it's not to me. At all.

     I don't try to ignore blessings and good things, I really dont. Every time  something good comes along that isn't helpful, I try very very hard to take the menaing behind it or extract the heart it came from or even just accept it graciously. And I know this is going to sound very bad to people who believe in God's love but everyday I believe less and less that he loves me...likes me...cares at all...isn't making fun of me or putting me in situations where I will lose. 

     I understand the principle of recieving things, being gracious with small things could lead to getting greater things. But here's how it feels to me:

God: Hey there...you.

Me: Umm, Hi. I need some help.

God: Oh? oh, yeah. I know that...everyone needs help. What do you need?

Me: Well, I need some love and a lot of money. Well a lot to me, enough to cover rent and eat and buy the things I need. And I need a way to make my head better, I'm kinda messed up from birth and it doesn't get better when stress only gets stronger every single day, I could use some kind of break from that, maybe something to restart my battery. 

God: Ah. Yeah...yeah, I see what you mean. SO you need money to live andsomeone to love you and accept you and you need things? That's not too much for ME. 

*God reaches down*

Me: Well thank you...umm, I don't want to sound disrespectful...but this is a nickel. I appreciate it...but I need $500.00 a month just for rent and I make enough to cover that...but I need to eat and, like, do things all the time.

God: Be thankful for what you have.

Me: My bike just broke, a nickel won't pay for that.

God: So you aren't gracious?

Me: Umm...I am gracious but the gift isn't enough. and while I was just thinking about that, my pants ripped, I lost my hat and gloves, I got sick and the otehr day I nearly killed myself because it's just too overwhelming for me...ca I get some more help? Please?

*God reaches down again*

Me: Is this a pen? It's...it's a nice pen but this solves literally nothing. In fact now I have to take care of this expensive looking pen. AND while I was sitting here, I got evicted from where I was living and I accidentally insulted someone I didn't even intend to speak to and now my job is on thin ice. That adds a ton of more stress that I couldn't handle before...how does this help?

*God reches down, this time with a little annoyance*

Me: Well thank you. Thank you for the one free meal. I really appreciate that.

Me: But what about my bike? Or my living situation? And I know I've been denying this for, well, all my life but I need to be honest with everyone about my gender issues.

God: I've taken care of all that.

Me: Really??

God: No, but I did make you think I did for a little bit. Are you stress free now? For a few minutes, you didn't have those life affecting, heavy, potentially dark things to think about. You're welcome.

Me: WHAT ON EARTH!!! BUT NOTHING CHANGED AND I STILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH ALL OF THAT DARK STUFF! SO WHY DIDN'T YOU HELP ME IN A REAL WAY??

God: I lifted all those problems to let you recharge your battery.

Me: But you didn't actually change anything. I still need all those things AND NOW I've been accused of stealing money that I didn't steal at work so thats's EVEN MORE STRESS!

God: You are ungreatful, I'm going to punish you by taking your favorite sport away from you and pushing your friends away from you for a time. Oh and your still you so...punishment.

Me: And I can't end myself?

God: Nope, that would be wrong.

Me: So can I get some kind of REAL reward for NOT ending myself?

God: You're alive, that's reward enough.

Me: Umm...screw you!

God: . . .

Me: And my ONE family member that means anything to me just moved away...that's just great...can you replace that void in my life?

God: . . .

Me: And NOW I might have a heart condition. Great, thanks...I really needed that in my life. Oh and as much as I want to be angry anout everything, I gotta say thank you for the bike you found a way to get me.

God: . . .

Me: So...today I saw someone else do something really good. It helped a very little. Thanks. Umm...but I still have no friends around or a place to call my own...or enough money to eat food that's god for me...and I am still in need of serious mental help...and I may have a bad heart...and that bike just broke too. Sooo...little help? I was thankful, so that's something...right?

God: . . .

Me: Umm...God? It's me...the transgendered, hurting, empty, lonely, poor, suicidal individual that needs a lot of help.

God: . . .

Me: Welp...I'll be here slowly drowning in my own filth of a life if you need me...I'll accept pretty much anything at this point...You know I was ignored all through highschool and it makes me hateful to be constantly ignored, like I can't even help that. ou would know, you put me in that awful school with tose awful people and gave me no support through family or friends or any hope that anything would get any better...just saying...as I drown slowly...

God: You're ungreatful. PUNISHMENT!

Me: At THIS point...whatever. Punish me. Whther I try to do good or bad, I get the floor taken from me the exact second I feel comfortable. Every.Damn. Time.

God: . . .

Me: Great...ignored...again...Good thing nothing has gotten better, cause if not this might be bad psychologically.

Me: Ok...things got worse.

Me: Not even kidding...things are like scary bad right now. I'm not asking for like a lot, just SOMETHING.

Me: Fuck me.

God: You don't believe I love you. Punishment, this is gonna hurt me a lot more than it hurts you.

Me: Are you kidding me?! So I have to be flawless to get any help? By the way...tonight I nearly died. It's only because I didn't want to hurt my friends that I didn't.

     Okay, I could go on a lot more but I think this thoroughly serves the purpose of expressing how I feel. I want to believe things are not this way and I want to have hope that things will get better, I really do. I know I've gotten through some crazy times and made it out but the tank is near empty and I am running out of ways to beg strangers and friends for help; they're getting a little tired of it too. To the credit and amazing care of my friends, I cannot thank each and every one of them enough. To the friends who have spent time talking to me or letting me rant to the friends who have sent me things to the many many rides and rooms they've offered to the friends who have spent their energy on me...I thank you from the bottom of my slwoly draining heart. You're the only reason I'm still here right now to type this very diary entry.

Late Night Rant

     So I've been having trouble putting my thought into words for a while now but I'm trying to get back into it. It's really therapeutic for me to get stuff out of my head and onto a virtual notepad. Over the last month I have bene so busy between moving (4 times since November, yeah...you read that right) and stress from all directions, I have really gotten myself stuck in my own head.

     So I want to get some of the issues and thoughts out of my 'sometimes steel trap of negativity' of a mind and try to work from here. so...

     Well the first and most stressful thing I have been dealing with is the pausing of my transition and recent kinda inability to talk about it to many people. I know that is a lot to toss out so I'll unravel it and explain each layer:

* My transition started seemingly too easy, I got into my clinic and things were moving along pretty quickly...until...I had an EKG done and my Dr saw something worrying. She instructed me to see a cardiologist, which took over a month to find and see. Breaking this down even further, I misunderstood my Dr and thought I could start taking hormones, then I found out I shouldn't have and stopped. That was devistating at the time because I didn't have insurance and couldn't afford a cardiologist. For a few weeks, I really barely held on to any kind of hope of anything ever being even okay. Depression made it hard to do anything and I thought I wasn't going to be able to transition, which terrifies me.

I finally opened up to everyone that matters to me and have been doing little things that I want to lead to me fully and completely transitioning from male to identifying as female. (For anyone who disagrees with this decision, I know I am not going to ever be a true female and I don't have any delusions that this move will be as satisfying as the imagination I have about transitioning but I am doing as much as I can to make myself as comfortable as possible in the little bit of life I have left here on earth.

* Lately, I haven't really had many people to talk to about specifically my transition. I have many people to talk to but between the holiday busyness and my friends all kinda having major things going on in their lives, it's been hard to catch some of them and the ones who have been free arenb't okay with this so I don't bring it up to those.

* And finally, the thing that seems to remind me it exists whenever I try to get any success started: Depression. 

Depression has caused me to skip things I would have enjoyed, especially the Thanksgiving/Christmas time of year. The reason I haven't been able to put thoughts together to write in this for a while is the same reason I backed out of plans a few times and the same reason I would rather peel my eyelids off than talk on the phone to anyone. Depression/anxiety has such a strong hold on me at times. I'm still trying to figure a way to beat that...

     So all of that has made it hard to acknowledge the god things that have happened in the last few weeks, which I need to remind myself that amid the darkness of all of that I do have things to look at and be greatful for.

My friend, one of my longest and most important friendships in a way, did something I could not be more humbled by. She gave me a computer to use, she heard mine broke and sent me one she had and wasn't using. She absolutely blew me away with her generosity and willingness to help.
And two frineds from my high school years have reached out to me lately and in their own way have made me feel honored to have them as friends.

One who I never really talked to in school (I was friends with her brothers) spent some time with me and is always there for me when I need someone to text. I hope to get more time to hang out with her and be a help to her even half as much as she is a great friend to me.

Another friend who was very very important to me in highschool happened to see me a few weeks ago in a mall, he asked if it was me he saw ansd we got to talking; I shared what I've been going through in life (being trans) and he is just as a great a friend now as he was back then.

---A quick summary of why I say he's such an important part of my
life: In school I was about the leas tpopular kid, even my closest friends never really had my back. This particular friend was cool with pretty much everyone and could have been like my other firends, he could have let me get made fun of or just walked away when I needed help but he didn't. There were a few times he gave me credit for things or stood up for me. He didn't know at the time but there was one specific time when I had lans to end myself that day, I was so lonely and was being made fun of by someone who I still have trouble not hating...this kid followed me home from school threatening to beat me up the whole way.

Well, the day I was planning to end it all, this friend stuck up for me and didn't care if it made him les popular or whatever, he did the right thing. Him doing that, stopped me from committing suicide...like literally he saved my life and didn't even know it.

So hearing from him recently and knowing he offered his support if/when I need it because he learned what I am...well, there is no greater honor between friends. These friends have all touched me in a time when I've been really down, not exactly my lowest point in life but definately great timing.

OHHH! And another thing I am really happy about is two of my best friends are getting married; they've asled me to be a bridesmaid!! I can't express how much I love that! I'm so excited to be a part of their big day!!

     Ok...I need to get some sleep and gear up to take on tomorrow. Any prayers are appreciated and a kind word or act goes a long way so remember it doesn't take much to make someone's day better or much worse. Keep that in mind and. . .

Awkward level: Expert

     Please tell me you remember Steve Urkel. You what??! You don't? Are you calling me old? Ok...yeah, I guess you have a point. Ok so Steve Urkel was a character in a 90's sit-com called Family Matters. You have probably heard the theme song from another one of your old friends (yes, we're friends now and no you can't opt out. Friends are forever)
So this show is based on a good family (the Winslows) and their wacky clumsy neighbor, a young Stephen Urkel, who is a scientist and ruins pretty much everything he touched (except when the writers needed him to do things like...be a scientist)

He comes over all the time without knocking, because neighbors in the 90's were that close, and he was madly in love with the Winslow daughter Laura. Urkel was a lovable loser and he played very well off of his counter part family, mainly the father Carl.

He would come over and the family would be working on a house of cards, slowly standing them up and clearly it took them many hours to work on. Steve would walk in and knock over a broom which would hit the chair at the table housing the elaborate card building...and can you guess what happens next?

Yup, you're right. Carl tries to stop the chair, bumps into Laura and she lands face fist into a pie (there was always a pie for someone's face to end p in) and when the crowd stopped laughing, the house of cards would topple and Urkel would give his famous line, "Ask not what you can do for..." Oh, wait...wrong quote. No, he'd say, "Did I do that?"

The reason I'm bringing all this up is to explain how I see myself a majority of my life. I am quite adept at making the worst of a mistake and creating big problems for anyone close to me at the time.
I don't mean exactly the way Urkel did, he would comically bump into something or drop something and the show would turn into a living Mouse trap game. This hits that and that knocks over a thing, which falls on [insert item that is meant to be protected]

I have had my moments like that but overall, I'm more of the person who says the worst thing at thew worst time or that person that loses or breaks the ONE thing I need at the one moment I need it most and if I were on a sit-com, there would be a moment where I look at the camera and say some silly phrase while waiting for a crowd to laugh and clap. And what makes things worse is I have times where I can see it coming, I can recognize when I'm in the middle of saying or doing something that I'm going to majorly regret. In my mind I'm screaming,

"STOP! STOP NOW! Ok. stop now...You...you didn't stop. 

Why didn't you...Oh and now you're still going?! 

Why would you still go?! What could you...oh boy...you just made it worse. 

You couldn't possibly make it...wow...you. just. made. it. worse."

I can sometimes see that I'm about to ruin things and I could do one of two things: I could keep going and hope it doesn't go as bad as it could (hint: It ALWAYS goes worse than the worst I imagined it could go) Or I could try to do the opposite or change what I'm doing at least a little. And I've heard that going with your first instinct is usually better than trying to overcompensate so I try to steer the ship out of the way of damage.

I am convinced that even when I try to do the opposite of the wrong decision, I make that choice at the wrong times...George
Costanza's theory fails me.

And as comical as some of this can be or even harmless overall, it drives me mad when I know what I'm going to say is going to be the wrong thing.

You want an example? Like from a tv show? Oh from my life? I can give you one that was hilarious afterwards and barely anyone caught it but I still remember it like it happened yesterday. And I still get embarrassed and laugh most of the time about it.

So the scene is at my church, I was in charge of the morning adult Sunday school service (not like a pastor, kinda the pre service service) I led our tiny group in songs and maybe brought up a verse or something like that.

Well the end came and in my mind I smoothly finished it by saying, "Thanks for coming and you can all circumvent to wherever you are going." then I smiled and everyone clapped and gave me a standing ovation. And then they threw roses at me and asked me to give a speech on how great it is to be me.

Now here's how it happened outside the awkward playground that is my mind. My mouth opened, words started falling weirdly out and they sounded like this, " Ok everyone, thanks for you coming. You may all circumcise to your rooms..."

You may laugh, you may make fun of me (as if me not giving you permission would stop you) but know that I will laugh harder and make fun of me harder than you ever could. I was also soooo much more embarrassed at that moment when I realized one girl heard that and had to walk out of the room quick before bursting out in laughter.

That's the kinda funny thing I refer to when I talk about saying the wrong things at the wrong times. I'm not only good at it, I'm at expert level saying/doing the wrong things at the wrong times.

I hope this made someone laugh or relate in some way...good luck to us all.

Late Night Thoughts

Loneliness sets in quick like rushing waters and pain covers my organs like fire. I feel numb, I physically hurt. Rational thoughts seem a thousand miles away for split seconds and when they come back, they only fuel my rage, anger and hurt. I try to fight off that by stating the positives, things can get better, the grass can get greener tomorrow or next week or next year...can is the key word, can also leads to may not. Thoughts spin around my head, thoughts like "everyone will be better off in the end. They'll hurt for a little while but move on and grow stronger from my death." and "How long do I have to live for others before I can die for myself?" and many others similar to these run around with no constraints in my mind, filling my heart with emptiness and fear of living. 

A fear of living...that's almost funny to me, I have always feared death. I feared doing something that would lead to my death most of my life, to the poit that it stopped me from doing a lot of things when I was younger. Now I have the 'back of my mind' thought that living is scary and living for a long time is terrifying. These thoughts lead to remembering people who have killed themselves that have taken a piece of me with them, I have such trouble fighting off these feelings or thoughts.

My Uncle Mike, I still can't believe this is real, that he's not a call away right now, that I'm never going to talk to him again, that I'll never hear him laugh again. This is the closest man I've ever had to a father ever and he's gone...and he did it to himself. He knew what he was doing...I keep reenacting his last days in my mind, imagining what may have been going through his head and what the actual last straw was that made him decide to take his own life. 

It affects every second of every day in a way, I constantly think about calling him or where he'd be right now if he was around still. I can't truly see the positive in this, nothing is better fro his loss and I am truly messed up i a way I may never be fixed from. The more I try to be angry, the more I just feel desperately lonely and...just hurt. I often randomly think, "How am I dealing with this? How can I deal?" I don't know...I don't know.

What if...two words that have been the bane of my existence, literally. There has been no other single thing that has affected e as negatively as this phrase. I constantly think "what if I didn't do that?" "what if I did that?" "what if she did this or that?" the list goes on longer that I like to think about. 

There are prominent "what if's" that have hovered over my head, things that have been in the back of my mind at all ties sine they happened and have affected every move I make in my life, I don't know how to deal with them even still. My attempt is to identify them and pick them apart to see the truest form of truth in them. I hope that wrapping my head around the truth and learning what these "what if's" really are will help me to move past them.