“You need to arm yourself with information.”

All it took a friendly suggestion from a random, yet wonderful connection I’ve recently learned to appreciate.*

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The title is the advice I plan to follow. I’m going to seek out others who’s been through what I intend to do, asking them questions and hear their stories – learning about possible pitfalls and what to do in different situations that may arise. I’m going to take the time to do extensive research on the subject. Be forearmed about the challenges I will face. Self-re-discovery. I need to take all the time I need to understand my transition and understand what I want from this. Some people never go through with reassignment and live perfectly happy lives with their new identities. I wasn't sure I’ll be able to do this since in my mind, I had skipped this bit already – wanting to rush forward and get it over with. Guess that's just a normal human response to these things.

“You can sit and read all the wishy washy stories people post on the internet about their transitions which are nice and full of hope. But they're no substitute for actually being able to speak with someone who has gone through it all and can answer your questions and help you understand what you should be teaching yourself.”

Slow down. Educate oneself. It's the same with everything, but it's especially important for something so profoundly life changing.

To have a full awareness of the issues one could potentially have to deal with in one’s life so one can figure out how to deal with them should one ever face them - hence the recommendation of getting in contact with people who have experience to share.

 “There's a whole community of people out there ready and willing to embrace you for who you are and give you the benefit of their experience. All you have to do is reach out and they'll reach back.”

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*”Family is an important thing in life: no argue there. But you can`t define yourself by other people. Life is to short, you have to be your own man (or woman). Otherwise, you will always strive to make others happy, not yourself. And to take care of others, first one must know to care of oneself.”