"Back in the Day"

Perhaps you have heard of or read some of Jennifer Finney Boylan 's work. (Shown below left.)  She writes for the New York Times and her recent article caught my eye because of how I identified with it.  Both of us grew up in rural settings and as she points out, yes we had "boyhoods".  Here's an excerpt from hers: 

(About her summers growing up in the 1960s)  "Although I became a woman in adulthood and struggled with the gender business until then, it’s nevertheless true that I had a boyhood, and that many moments in it were pretty blissful. I passed my days in the farmland and forests of rural Pennsylvania. I went fishing for brown trout, dived into creeks from covered bridges and shot off model rockets with my father. I climbed onto the top of the backstop at the elementary school playground — abandoned in summer — and learned swear words from a boy named Kevin Walsh."

She goes on to write:

"I’m not sure I would have traded my boyhood for a girlhood, if given the chance. I know I would have been grateful to have been spared the misery of adolescence, of course, and the wearisome transition that came after, but on the whole I give thanks for those July days I spent staring up at the blue sky. That boy lives inside me, even now. His dreams are still mine."

Finally, 
"As for me (Jennifer Boylan) , I have shed a few tears over the course of my life, searching for the boy I was. There aren’t that many people alive now who remember him, besides me, and that makes me a little sad. Like a lot of people, I sometimes ask myself the question posed by David Byrne: “Well? How did I get here?” Finding the answer, a sense of peace between past and future, is one measure of wholeness and well-being."

There is much more to this article in the Times and I hope by giving you excerpts, I have been able to give you the essence of her thoughts.  Plus, not that she cares, I wonder if there are those who have taken her to task for not being a true "transgender" woman because she knowingly took so long to transition? "Me thinks-yes!"

Go here for the entire post!