I began Hormone Replacement Therapy just about two years ago. I’ve watched, with a certain giddy joy and amazement as my body has changed. I don’t think I have the words to truly express what it was like to realize that I was developing breasts or to realize that my hips and thighs were broadening or to watch my body hair just seem to fade away.

I also have been undergoing electrolysis for the last two years. It’s tedious and it hurts. (It feels like getting repeatedly stabbed with a white hot needle.) But the thought of one day not ever having to shave keeps my going. (That day is still a year or so away.)

I am scheduled for gender reassignment surgery this Spring. When that is done I will finally be me.

This is a profoundly moving and spiritual time for me. With each passing day I look and feel more like my true self. I finally look like I’ve always felt: like a woman. It is also a time of great triumph. I have finally found the courage to take hold of the one thing, the only thing, I ever really wanted out of life: the right and privilege to live it as a woman. Finally, Ashley walks in the real world and feels the sunlight on her face.

Society