If you knew then what you know now

[Jenniferx]

Jenn, let me first put a bee in your bonnet. You wish you hadn't disappointed your parents and family and made to feel different. Please adopt the approach that if they had not failed you and made you feel accepted things might have been different. You failed no one. You are being true to yourself. They could not see that and failed you in your time of need.
Barbara

Well I'll need to work on that one for sure. I guess it really all boils down to was I really born this way, or was I made to be this way, either by my actions or actions of others. Wasn't I a normal little boy at some point? Or was I always wired to want to wear girly things- if that's the case then I can begin to forgive myself, and to some degree I already do. I think I surprize no one by saying it's been a hard life, I would not have chosen-if I had had a choice.
Jenn

[Tracii G]

Me if I were 19-20 I would transition in a heartbeat.

[Jenniferathome]

If I knew then, I would have lived years without shame. I would have told my girlfriend who later became my wife, and I would have enjoyed my time more. But there is no going back so all we can do is take advantage of our time going forward.

[I Am Paula]

Absolutely, with a capitol A. I would be a content 53 year old woman. However, since only hindsight is 20/20, I've come to accept my non-op self as I am. Back in the seventies I could not find a symathetic ear, in either a therapist, or an M.D. and gender reassignment was something 'they do over in denmark'.

[Lorileah]

If things were the same as they were then, then no I would not do anything different. If the technology then was what it is now...we would not be having this discussion because I would be at tennis hitting on the instructor or at the club with the girls talking about how our rich husbands are all jerks but we love out new diamonds

[Foxglove]

If the technology then was what it is now...we would not be having this discussion because I would be at tennis hitting on the instructor or at the club with the girls talking about how our rich husbands are all jerks but we love out new diamonds

I don't believe it for a minute, Lorileah. You're a much more profound and spiritual person than that.

Annabelle

[Pexetta]

I've thought about this a lot - if I'd realised, say, in 1992, that 20 years later it wouldn't have gone away and that I would have finally failed to convince myself that I was 'just a cross-dresser', perhaps I would have transitioned. But - it's not easy to do that in 2012, and it was a lot less easy in 1992. I might have been unable to cope with people's hostility, particularly because back then I hadn't dealt with many other issues which would have made it harder.

I think tbh that knowing then what I know now would have made things worse, because I'd realise what I had to do, but I'd not have the courage to do it.

[Leslie Langford]

If I knew then, I would have lived years without shame. I would have told my girlfriend who later became my wife, and I would have enjoyed my time more. But there is no going back so all we can do is take advantage of our time going forward.

What Jennifer said...

That, and to have bought IBM, Microsoft, Xerox, Polaroid, GM, and Kodak stock when they were still on a tear and to have sold my shares just before they tanked. That, and Apple and Google stock in the start-up years. Facebook - not so much! . Maybe also gold, Swiss Francs, and real estate in Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, Vancouver, and New York City oh, say, about 40 years ago...

[Saffron]

It's no use to think about changing things of your past. Live the present time, nowadays we have more understanding societies, better medicine, laws and the internet

[Karinsamatha]

If I knew what I know 20 years ago I believe I would be doing the something I am now, which is pursuing HRT and living "full" time. But I didn't allow my self to acknowlage who I am.

[Leah Lynn]

Me if I were 19-20 I would transition in a heartbeat.

That's two of us, Sister! When I figured out what the hubbub was about Christine Jorgenson, I thought I really wanted to do that, too. However, I felt that I owed it to the family to not be a news sensation; I had to be who THEY wanted me to be. I wasted so many years of my life trying to be "The Good Son".

[Courtneigh]

I definitely would no doubt. I wish I could have transformed when I was young I could and would have embraced it with all I am.
Unfortunately being brought up in a very conservative society and family it was not that easy.
Even later in life would be a challenge as society was still so judgmental and has their views of right and wrong and of what should be and what not.

I too have gone through a phase where I tried to be a normal man as society prescribed. I tried for too long...I should have gone then already with who I knew I was. I have wasted so much precious time and missed opportunities.

But I believe it is never to late and that there is no better time than now.

[PretzelGirl]

I think this shows us how much more we will be out there in the coming years. Young people today have less inhibitions and we see today's impact of society by many in this thread wanting to change how they did things. I am sure that today's mindset has to be a reason for these changes at some level.

I started late, so I really have nothing to go back and change. But I can look back over the last 10 years and say that I had some early inhibitions, which is natural. But then I just started doing what I want. Transition isn't likely in my future, but who knows. The key is that those that start doing this at this day an age are more accepted and more likely to do what they want instead of what they feel is the right compromise.

[Sharon B.]

I would have never gotten married and when I wasn't working in drab attire I would in feminine attire and going out as a woman.
I would have stayed lived in the city instead of being out in the country where I now live.

[JenniferLynn0370]

OMG, no doubt in my mind...I would be a woman, a wife, a mother and love every breath of my femininity...if I had only known then what I know now...if only the internet had been around then...and if I had only had the courage then to just be the woman I have always known I am.

[AnitaH]

If I knew then what I know now-------I WOULD HAVE BECOME THE WOMAN WHO LIVES INSIDE OF ME!!!!!!! And that would have entailed HRT, SRS and after that S H O P P I N G!!!!!!!!!

Molly

I'm with Mollyanne on this.

AnitaH