dinner with my younger self

[sistawendy]

On the bus to Pride I met some LGBT interns from MyCo. It turned out that a couple of them went to the same yoga class that I do, so we started doing post-yoga dinner a few weeks ago. On Monday it was just a young trans woman and I. It was eerily like having dinner with my younger self. At one point I even uttered the words, "Don't make the same mistakes I did." I meant things like believing that love would save me and disconnecting from other trans (or otherwise freaky) people for so many years.

And yet, the very fact that we met where we did puts her a long way away from where I was at her age. Trans people weren't welcome at Pride events, and being out and trans was almost unheard of. I shied away from GLB people as a youngster because a) I didn't think I was one of them, and b) there didn't seem to be much mutual understanding or empathy between the GLB folks and the T folks. That's changed a lot in the last twenty-five years.

It doesn't just get better for individuals; it's getting better for entire populations.

Comments

[fizzgig-bites.livejournal.com]

I hope your younger self takes your advice. I remember you from years ago and compared to you now and it is so much different. It's sort of the difference between being lost and being so confident to the point of being cocky (no pun intended.)

Thesaurus.com entry for cocky:
Main Entry: cocky/cocksure
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: self-assured, full of oneself
Synonyms: arrogant, brash, bumptious, certain, conceited, confident, egotistical, hotdogging, hotshot, hubristic, know-it-all, lordly, nervy, overconfident, overweening, positive, presumptuous, self-confident, smart aleck, smart guy, smarty, smarty pants, sure, swaggering, swollen-headed, vain, wise guy

Ehhh...I'll just stick to cocky because hotdogging and wise guy are just as bad.

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

Cocky? Moi? If there's anything that'll knock the cockiness right out of you, it's dating as a middle-aged trans woman.