A Necessary Fiction

There’s a famous quote about “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it” but it doesn’t apply to me. I don’t remember my past, or at least from birth to about age ten.

I only discovered this while taking part in an experiment in my college Psychology class that completely upended my life. For one thing, I found out that I had no memories of nearly the first half of my life. I also found out something else.

There’s another famous quote about “Walk a mile in another man’s shoes …” and so on. That’s what the experiment was, to experience life from a different perspective. For one student, it meant to wear a fat suit. For another, to spend time in a wheelchair. For me, it was to experience life as a girl. And although the guy remained skinny under the suit, and the guy could get out of the wheelchair, I discovered that I was a girl, inside; I learned that I was transgender.

Once I learned that, I could begin to discover my past, my lost childhood … and then I could begin to discover what my future would be.

This is the long and detailed story of my discoveries.