Lurking Longtime.

[Meghan4now]

Rather than shanghai Mikell's thread I thought I would post this.

I lurked a looong time before joining. Years in fact. You may asks why? I sure did. Was I that creepy lurking guy? Why do I keep coming back here?

Well, this site was different. Not the get your rocks off. Not YouTube tutorials. Not just an endless stream of photos linking to photos. Not that I didn't check those out or enjoy some of that. This place had real (somewhat) stories and widely differing experience and opinions. While mostly in the closet and between long purges, I satisfied my "curiosity" vicariously here and elsewhere.

But I didn't join. Mostly from fear. Was I really a crossdresser or more a voyeur? Did I really have that much in common. What if my wife knew. Could this be traceable from a SecOps standpoint? What if I need TS (the other kind) clearance, or change jobs?

"But Meghan, your here now. How did that happen?"

Well there were several events involving my business, lost loved ones, turning 50, renewed faith, being married 25 years that made me say "What am I waiting for". And so I decided to live this part of my life too. Wasn't planning on joining here, but I wanted to see if there were locals I could talk to before joining a local group or going out in public.

The rest of its been pretty good. Posted pics of me. Cracked some jokes. Made a couple of friends. Hopefully encouraged some of those around me. And got feedback I would never have gotten by lurking.

Hope this helps someone else that is on the fence or just afraid. What are you waiting for?

[Kristy 56]

Well said Meghan ! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I had some of those exact doubts, fears etc And yesI lurked too. :)

[Samantha2015]

Meghan you are so right. I too was very nervous about joining but it is comforting to know
there are so many others with similar situations and completely understand what you are feeling.
Joined one other forum before this one but it is very inactive and just not worth the time.
This place is very active and I was blown away by the responses to just my introduction post.
I'm still pretty new here but this seems like a very well run community.
Glad to be a small part of it. :battingeyelashes:

[reb.femme]

I joined the site about 3 years ago, as I was looking for some support and/or encouragement in my emerging life style. I had just been busted by my wife and it was reading here that convinced me to tell my wife all. I am with another forum in the UK but I rarely visit there now, as I use this site for my interactions almost exclusively.

It's a sensible site, well regulated and not a show all porno area.

Rebecca

[cheryl reeves]

welcome to the group meghan,i to am fixing to turn 50 and been married going on 27 yrs. my wife knows and is accepting of this side of me.

[Jorja]

Jorja locks the closet door and throws the keys away. Haha, now you will have to live out here with the rest of us. :)

Welcome to the forum, Meghan. I hope you find all the comfort and encouragement you need here.

[Barbara Black]

I had the same doubts, started registering here several times before I finally went through with it, and am glad that I finally did. I love the site as all the others seem to be dating sites. Well, I am a crossdresser, I want to meet crossdressers, but as a heterosexual, I don't want to date them any more than I would want to date the guys that I already know (even though the guys on this site look so much better than the guys I meet in my other world). So I'm very thankful for this site, and thrilled by the people who are on it and help me understand myself. Barbara

[Suzie Petersen]

Well I for one am glad you joined :)

When I joined this forum, I actually did not have any of what I think are the typical concerns. I was not nervous about stepping out of my comfort zone, opening up to others about who, what and why I am. I stepped over that threshold many years ago and have stopped worrying about it a long time ago.

There was a consideration of safety and I think thats something we always have to consider in these electronic times. Fraud etc is certainly real and one has to be careful. I have an email which is used for my alter ego and which does not link to my male side in any direct way and I use that for things like this.

However, I hesitated for a different reason!
I have been away from the CD/TG community for several years as a choice and back when I made that choice, it was a clean cut since I know it can be difficult to moderate the involvement. So when I started considering joining this site, it felt a little like being a recovering alcoholic, considering walking into the local bar to make new friends! Not necessarily a good idea, right :)

Funny enough, it actually took me a couple of months to finally get in here! I dont know what went wrong, but when I registered, I never received the email response with the instructions. I wrote to the admin and never received a reply! I wrote again several times, and again, no reply. Tried registering again with a variation to the login name etc, and same thing happened again. At that point, I started wondering if a higher power was trying to tell me something :LOL:
Eventually I heard back and got in and I have enjoyed a lot of good conversations here since that day.

Hugs
Suzie

[Kate Simmons]

For myself this site had Karren Hutton's (wherever she is) endorsement, so I lurked a total of about 5 minutes before joining. Never would have figured I would have been here THIS long but it's the people mostly that keep me here. :battingeyelashes::)

[docrobbysherry]

Like Kate said. I jumped rite in. But there,s no rite or wrong way to enter. Some folks need to watchawhile. Then, stick one toe in the water. Some dive rite kn from the high board. Once we,re all in the pool, how we got here isn't important.

[ChristinaK]

And you had the courage to post pictures of yourself. I still haven't gotten there yet...

Well said, Meghan. This is a great place to be.