Whether we want it or not being Transgender will get you attention. Have you considered that you may be the first such type of person someone knows, or sees, or worse yet judges?

If not, Welcome! There's not getting out of it- those aren't my rules, but sometime in your transition and likely even after everything is complete the subject is going to come up.

What will you do- what will you say, and moreover: "How will you know?" Some of you may not be aware and some will but thousands of women have made strides in what the world is today so your path could be better.

Be mindful that you too are contributing to that path, and what is it you will give? "Give!", you say? Yes. We all give something to everything, always.

Will you create a good first impression to a stranger? Or will someone call you a freak? Even worse, will a parent or sibling reject you?

"Coming Out Letters" and "Telling my friends" and even doing inappropriate things to get attention, working in certain industries, or even heroic acts and winning the lottery can heap a burden of Social Mindfulness upon you.

Even though many here are teens, there are some of us who span every decade back five times. We all have something in common that is intimate to each of us, and that is knowing ourselves. How well we know "us" is going to determine the quality and quantity of our transition to the point of success or failure.

"All those who knock are not allowed entrance!" Social Mindfulness is about zillions of hours researching, keeping a journal and keeping it private only to you (in addition to here, of course.) Fifty year olds should not be acting like twelve year olds in their demeanor here or in public. But that's a duh.

Before it sounds like i want to be the Tranny Police, "You will have to find your own way,and like someone here observed, "You will likely loose everything you have." "Sometimes, many times over-." You too become who you are to be through your own Phoenix-like" transition into the real you.

"Transsexing" (credit to K.G.) is when the day comes that "him" or "her" as you were born at birth was the lie you were living. If you're really meant to be on this path, then you will find your way on your own and through that self discovery you will too find the real you.

That "you" that is found when completing transition and surgery complete is what many seek today. Like i mentioned by Coming Out letters will have been one of hundreds of things long gone by. Ahh, the days. You will have closed several chapters of your lives and "BAM!" the book closes.

If you're lucky you've done something with your life other than obsessing about your gender. And you've learned by the metric ton! Sage wisdom about changing your sex maybe the next Bestseller. Truth is society only supports one of those every five to ten years (one book) and so it likely won't be you.

Why? Because you can't be both an 'activist" and "stealth" at the same time. You have to choose one or the other.

It would be reasonable then, and i believe healthy for each of us to know almost everything there is about Transgenderism, after all there will be a test on it at the end of the class. That will be the day the shrink or physician signs your papers for surgery. You don't get them just because you want them. Then there's the money issue... but i digress.

What can you always do today to help yourself? Develop a successful voice, research, journal, and above all imagine the adult responsible you that you will become, then reverse engineer how to get there slowly and completely. This is not a race, the first one there looses because they went too quick.

Your mileage will vary though.

-Marina