My Life in Transition - Becoming A Phoenix

From the back cover of my memoir, *My Year in Transition – Becoming a Phoenix*: To sum up life before transitioning, it would be fear and trauma. Fear has absolutely no place in my life anymore. I go wherever and do whatever, not allowing fear to keep life “safe.” In the past year, I’ve gone to a multitude of places that would not be viewed as transgender-friendly and lived my best life. Trauma is still a work in progress. Much of it was rooted in being invisible, and led to triggered PTSD responses in the present. I’ve learned to weigh out my responses to a situation and ask how much of what I feel is the weight of past trauma and how much is what just happened. Visibility has allowed healing from a lifetime of trauma to begin, and made me a far better person.