It Was so Much Larger than I

 

Jessie on right with Tom
from the image archives.

Back in the so-called simpler days when I was growing up, putting on a dress, adding makeup and acting like a girl was quite the rush. The mirror meant everything to me and I couldn't wait to show myself out to it again and again.

It took me awhile to grasp the idea I wanted to do and be more than just a girl in the mirror. I wanted to be the girl. It was my earliest fundamental idea I was so much more than just a casual cross dresser, if the knowledge had been available to me, I would have labeled myself as transgender or at the least gender fluid. Bottom line is however you want to label me, the whole process was so much larger than I was.

From that point on, anything I did in life was predicated on my gender dysphoria. Each person I decided to establish a friendship with, I needed to wonder if they would ever accept the feminine side of me. The whole process led me to be very standoffish with most strangers and developed very few close friends. Of course the idea of marriage became a huge obstacle. I knew I wanted female companionship but did not know if marriage could ever be possible for me. The end result to any relationship could ultimately finish because of my gender issues which made me wary of knowing anyone. 

Eventually, I was able to work around many of my gender issues and my world broke open once I was in the military. It was there I met my first wife and future mother of my only child. She was unplanned since I was out of control in my life as I busily went about running from my problems. Becoming a father turned out to be so beneficial to me as it settled me down and I figured I could put off telling her her father was really a second mother of sorts. 

Through it all, I tried my best to keep running from my gender dysphoria. Mainly from abusing alcohol, changing jobs and moving homes. I became a gender survivalist. Still being very careful around strangers and keeping up my well crafted male persona. It was working as well as could be expected until I met my second wife. She knew I was a cross dresser from the beginning so I thought I had it made, a strong woman who accepted my feminine self. What I did not factor in was again I was more than a cross dressing man, I was a transgender woman lying to herself. When she married me, she made it clear she wanted nothing to do with living with another woman. A fact which would come back to haunt me totally in the future. 

My second wife and I managed to navigate a very complex relationship for more than twenty five years before she passed away. Sadly, during her life, I became increasingly active as a transgender woman and ended up cheating on her with another woman, who turned out to be me. As I was continually lying to myself, I was creating major problems for our relationship and my mental health. After she had passed on, I finally met my wife Liz as well as other female friends who convinced me my life as a trans woman was not larger than I. The more I emerged into the world, the more I understood my feminine inner soul was always the dominant person in my life and she was more than ready to take over. The easiest way to explain it was it all felt so natural when she was calling all the shots in my life. 

Little did I know, the half century I spent exploring my cross dressing world was little more than a huge build up to a new exciting larger life.