Taking a class as Christine

[Christie ann]

Last summer I had the chance to take a week long class in stream and sedimentary geology?ya, I know it sounds thrilling. It was taught by one of the natural history organizations aligned with our bigger national parks. When I signed up for the class, I checked their website concerning diversity acceptance, and yes, they were open to having a student who was identifying as a woman.
I took the camper so getting ready each morning was easier than being in a tent. Shaving was the biggest issue and the 3,4 and 5 o?clock shadow during our day long field trips. You don?t need a lot of makeup on a geology field trip. I took along some lotion, a razor and foundation so I could retouch during the day. My clothes collection is quite small so there was some overlap in presentation.

Each day I wore my trusty hiking skort, a scoop neck top and my favorite pink socks, as well as the basic underpinnings of a woman and my trusty wig. I was introduced as Christie and so was called Christie by everyone all week long. There was one older guy who would misgender me all the time, but everyone else was on board and treated me just fine. The other women would even pull me into the women?s room so we could continue with our conversations when we would have breaks. The instructor was amazing, he was the only one with a class roster and know my male name and he never used it.

I was quite honest with my female classmates ( who accepted me with literal open arms) and told them my desire was to be a woman and not a caricature of a woman. They helped me quite a bit with my daily presentation and knocked some of the masculine edges off my making conversation.

It was an example of gender euphoria being me. Sorry, I don?t do pictures, but I am sure I was quite cute all week!