Yeah, parents can do that to you.  Especially, being the people who supposedly have known you the longest. Welp, my parents, while probably not meaning to, have shaken my confidence to the core. Mom casually said, and dad agreed, that they could never see me as anything but male and would only call me by my male name.  And there goes the confidence, swirling with all the other dirt and debris down the drain.

I am shaken, most definitely.   I had to be ready for the worst, nd I was. But this is a little less than worst. It is not even purgatory. Well, maybe it is. And maybe in time, my parents will change their minds.

Anyway, that’s where I am now, headspace-wise – Shaken, most definitely, but not stirred. Or something like that. Shaken. Let’s just leave it at that.