Which is bigger, Full Time or the Grand Snip?

A funny thing - well, what I consider a funny thing - has happened to me several times since I started down my transition path. People have spoken or written to me about it as though surgery were far and away the climax of the process. Things along the lines of, "It's not really final until you get your bits irreversibly altered with a knife," or "It'll be your rebirthday!"

Folks, my rebirthday happened six months ago. Let me tell you why:

• For the first time in my life, I presented to the whole world what I saw in the mirror.
• I have boobs and shrunken testicles. I probably passed the point of no return with hormones a year ago. I'm almost certainly infertile, and my body will never be as it was.
• I spent months changing my name in the eyes of every governmental & commercial institution on the planet, and coming out to everybody I could contact.

Surely the above counts for more than parts of my body, however psychologically important to me and evidently everyone else, that most people I know will never see. And you don't have to take my word for it; I would be surprised to find another trans person who disagrees with this.

Summary: transition != surgery.