sistawendy | a blast from my past

More than a dozen years ago, before I even seriously considered transitioning (Foreshadowing!) and before MOOs went comatose, there was a MOOer I'll call S. They disappeared from radar. I don't remember its being particularly sudden, but it wasn't really announced, and several of us MOOers noticed her absence and missed her. I didn't think too much of it at the time because hey, life happens, and that kind of disappearance was almost the norm.

Fast forward to yesterday. S jumps on a certain major social networking platform that we MOOers all gravitated toward to tell us all she's trans and transitioning. MOOers rejoice!

It's fantastic that S is taking this huge step that she needs to take. Good Goddess, nobody knows that better than I do. But what makes me sad is that for the last dozen-plus years, she's been living virtually the same life I did with no one to talk to or help her.

Thought being in a relationship would smother gender dysphoria? Check.
Had kids? Check.
Marriage? Check.
Delayed and painful divorce? Check.

S is unfortunately in a less benign work and geographic situation than I ever was, but otherwise the parallels between her & me are uncanny. I'm so sad that it happened, and there was no one from the MOO there for her.

But it's over. S is back with us, and with a better future than she ever imagined possible twelve years ago.