I just came across the video of you coming out to your cat from two years ago, and I was wondering how you are doing now? Are you happy?
This feels like an important question so I wanted to answer publicly.
Yesterday was my 2nd birthday. Marking two years since I started hormones. And a little more than two years since I came out.
After coming out, and being greeted with an incredible degree of support and love from family, friends, and most importantly my cat, I was flooded with relief. It was the blissfully ignorant belief that everything would be better, that I was finally home.
I was so incredibly wrong.
That doesnât mean I am unhappy, I am far from it. But it has been a fight.Â
Maybe this isnât the best analogy but I just got done binging Stranger Things 2 so this is just where my head is atâŚ
You know in a horror movie when you havenât seen the monster yet and itâs miserable, anxiety-riddled agony imagining whatâs going to come and when itâs coming? But then later, you finally see whatâs been lurking just out of frame and the fear is still there but itâs different somehow? Thereâs some sort of relief in that visibility, but youâre still left looking at this beast wondering if youâll get out alive.
Thatâs where Iâm at. Finally looking in the eyes of those scary things from the shadows, fighting to be the one standing at the end.
Coming out is just the beginning. There is so much work that comes after. I had no idea I would be battling these monsters, or even that these monsters existed.
I am fighting. I am exhausted. And yes, even still, I am happy. Â
I say this not to scare anyone, but because there is a lot of romanticizing that happens around the coming-out narrative. As if thatâs the hard partâand donât get me wrong, it is hard. But the reason itâs hard doesnât magically disappear once youâve done it. The world we live in does so much damage beyond simply silencing you, and that world doesnât magically change once you find your voice.
I say this because if you donât feel sunshine-and-daisies feelings after you come out, you should know youâre not alone.
If you find monsters when you open that closet door, I want you to know there are many others fighting at your side. Â