28th July 2021

In the year the followed coming up with Dennis, a lot had taken place. I had more firmly established his identity, given him a proper wardrobe that felt more him, but for personal progress, there was a lot of change.

With lockdown steadily lifting, my Dad had gotten in touch and asked if I wanted to shadow him every once in a while to earn a little bit of money doing electrical work. I figured there was no harm in doing this, and that's when I started developing my skills as an electrician. Granted, it was a bit shaky to start, it had been a while since I last worked with him, but I began to enjoy something that was a bit more challenging than what I was doing.

In my personal life, I decided to save up some capital and upgrade my PC, doing much of the work by myself and following online guides. The PC worked and is quite the accomplishment. I had built a fursuit for Dennis, entirely from scratch, tried my hand at being a dealer for the online Confuzzled that year, and was trying new things.

But for me and Dennis, the biggest accomplishment, one I don't think either of us would have done alone, was finally come out to my friends and family as non binary. I attended my first transgender and non binary support group and it was like a weight was lifted. People there understood me, understood what I went through, and it was like something had just activated, like that bell that chimes when a core memory is made in Inside Out, one that defines a personality. I came out to my friend and family, who loved how I finally had the confidence to be myself after years of keeping it concealed.

I don't think I would have done it without Dennis.