I had to steal a bunch of my little sister 's art supplies for this. There's a reason she has all the fancy stuff, I only draw with pencil because I SUCK at watercolor and markers and colored pencils. I recolored this digitally, which I'll post later, but this was just done with watercolor markers and sharpies. The drawing I did before this...well, thank fuck I scanned it before I tried to watercolor it.))

I went to my post-op appointment today! I'm healing perfectly. On the way home, my mom brought up the fact that everyone on Facebook (Which I rarely use) has been checking in on me. Then she said something that made me pretty emotional, that a lot of her childhood friends, her coworkers, my peer's parents, some have approached her with the information that my journey, and my transformation from a very depressed, very insecure and antisocial 'girl' to one of the happiest, friendliest boys on the planet, has enlightened them in many ways. Additionally, I have felt that I educated a lot of my peers who have had questions in the past. People see me, a normal (on the outside), functioning boy who happens to be transgender, instead of the stereotype of "Genderfluid Emo SJW", and seem to recognize my identity as something very common and valid.

So, I posted this monologue on Snapchat and Facebook afterwards;

I feel like some of you may be confused as to why I am having surgery. Well, for you who don't know [Selfie with the transgender flag in the background] Yes. My mom was telling me about all the support she was getting on Facebook, and how a couple people have approached her and said that my journey has helped them open their eyes a little. Which makes me very happy. I love that I've made more people more open and aware. I'm also open to people asking questions, to increase everyone's understanding of my struggles. Although I am EXTREMELY lucky to have such a supportive family, school, and community. For other people in other communities, their families aren't as supportive and their schools aren't as accommodating, or they have to deal with assholes or the government not letting them be themselves. It's important to talk about this, and I know there's this stereotype of "Did you just assume my gender" or "Helicoptersexual" (BTW, please fucking stop) because these are real issues that people in our communities and families have to deal with. I think some people see these issues as something exterior, but, as my mom said, when they see me as a normal (ish) person in their community, they realize that these issues are closer to home and need to be dealt with. Also, I want people to understand how incredibly unhappy I was when I was younger. I was a very depressed kid and it wasn't until 2016, when I started testosterone, when I started to see myself change into who I wanted to be. But for a lot of people like me, it's still like that. I am VERY lucky. Some people don't have the support that I do, and they need it.