When I was younger I dove into all the research about gender identity and sexual orientation devouring journal articles about various genetic factors, neurological development, socio-cultural performance, the whole kit and kaboodle. In retrospect, I wanted to know why I was the way I was. I was focused on finding a cause I could use to explain myself, because I didn't feel the world would accept me without explanation. Essentially, I needed chemistry, neurology, psychology, or sociology to defend my validity. The dilemma, of course, is that there are far too many extraneous variables to ever explain, directly, why any of us exist. Don't get me wrong, there's some excellent research out there, but the more I began to accept who and what I am, the less I cared about causation. I say knowledge is a pliable stone carved by imagination because we often have to conceptualize a hypothesis, before we set out to disprove it with the scientific method. Yet if we hold any theory as a singular answer, then we err towards arrogance. I am, I exist, and that's all that matters.