i turned 30 a couple months ago and the realization struck me that if you asked me, five years ago, where i would be when i turned 30, i would've told you "probably dead".
i was never at the "i need to kill myself" level. worst it ever got was in college, id cross the street and see cars coming and think "well either they stop and i get to class, or they dont and im finally done with this bullshit".
idk i think my mental health was worse in those hellish years after graduation, looking for a job and spending years getting the lie of "we'll get back to you", but i didn't have the energy to do anything about it, and i didn't go out enough to risk getting hit by a car. probably for the best i didn't.
it just feels unreal being here, all these years later. idk what the point is, exactly. not in a bad way, not in that "there's no reason to keep going, everything's meaningless" way. just a "what comes next?" haze that hasn't really stopped. gotten less miserable, but still foggy.
childhood, college, the job search, those had direction. a destination. a wife, two kids, a house with a fenced-in yard. that was a purpose, at least. that gave me something to live for, because maybe life becomes bearable once you make it, right? that's the idea after all, you just gotta make it and then it's all okay.
except i didn't. the train derailed and fell into a ditch and got stuck there for five years. realized i was the wrong gender, which was scary and upsetting, and that my parents didnt realize that, which was worse. (they got better. sort of.) started worrying id never make it, and that even if i did itd never be worth it.
antidepressants and the dream of transitioning gave me reasons to start climbing out of that ditch. the train was gone and the manual it came with was useless, but i knew how to climb. so i did.
now im here, thirty years old, im... i guess "happy" is a strong word, but certainly not "unhappy", and i keep wondering what the point is. dont get me wrong, i like being here more than i like the idea of not being here, i just dont really know why. i feel like something that was never meant to keep running this long. planned obsolescence should've kicked in years ago.
but im still here. thirty years old. ambivalently living in a world that hates me, but im here.
so i make my own reasons. im here because there are people like me who need help getting out of that ditch. im here because there are people who need to know they can change, that the railroad isn't the only way to go, that they dont need to make it to make it.
im here because i love how i look in that dress i found, and i wanna wear it more. im here because i read a book that made me cry, and i wanna read the next one when it comes out. im here because im writing a story and its not done yet and i need the world to see it.
im here because i have friends i want more time with, because i have lovers i want to grow old with, because i want to be there for my little brothers as they grow up. im here because life is worth living, and i want to live as much of it as i can. because i want to turn forty, fifty, sixty, and be me for every single one of those years.
im here because i wanna see how much higher i can climb.
(this was initially gonna be a reblog of this post, but became way too big and personal to add to that)












