Recently I was questioned by a dear friend as to why it appears as though I have discontinued my blogging. My response - mental fortitude. Shall we take a moment and look at the definition of that phrase?
mental and emotional strength in facing difficulty, adversity, danger, or temptation courageously: Never once did her fortitude waver during that long illness.
So, um, yeah, that is what has been going on with me. I like the part of that definition that adds the word courageously. That is what I have been asking of myself as of late - to have courage. It is through courage that one will eventually find confidence. That is what I am truly seeking, confidence. When faced with something brand new, typically most of us humans will not have confidence and we will need to rely upon courage.
What will it take to muster up that courage? Mental and emotional strength. While I truly do love blogging, and have every intention of continuing to do so, for now, I am using up just about all of the mental and emotional strength that I have.
Those who are not Facebook followers of mine, you may be a bit lost as to what is taking such strength and courage. To fill you in on all of the juicy details - I have decided that this is the year that I am transitioning. Such a surprise, mostly to myself, for I have been wavering on this decision for quite some time. Last school year when others asked if I was transitioning, I scoffed, and laughed. And my answer was a definitive NO. Hahahahahahahahahaha! Well, shocker, that apparently is exactly what I am doing!
I am thrilled that I am able to follow this path, but it is not necessarily out of design that I find myself where I am. In many ways, it is due to outside circumstances. Well, kinda, maybe, sort of, I guess! Wow, how definitive! Changing my hormones was possibly the best decision I have ever made, and I feel foolish for taking so long to take that leap. But it is what it is and it happened when it was supposed to. The thing about that choice though was that in order to have my insurance pay for it, I agreed to legally change my gender marker. Inevitable is the word that I often think about with that agreement. I was going to do it sooner or later, I suppose, but it was never what I had set out to do. I have never been one who has known for their entire life that they are actually female. Nope, that was not me. I just thought I was a weirdo!
However, that is still not where the strength and courage has been needed. That has been with my littles. You may recall that I am a middle school teacher. Currently I teach 7th and 8th math, MESA, and a 3D math/art class. What that translates to is a total student load of about 150. There are also about 350 other little lovelies that attend my school and I interact with many of them while on yard duty or just walking the campus.
I have now completed seven days of working directly with the students and it has been going fabulously! Amazing actually. Quite shocking and lovingly surprising! So.... then, what about this whole
mental fortitude thing? If everything has indeed been just as lovely as I have indicated, then why all of the mental strength and courage?
Well..... how about this -- Since I understood that I am a bit different than your typical human, I have innately understood that it would be dangerous to ever let anybody in on my little secret. Now what am I doing? Openly, blatantly, and without a doubt, showing everyone just what exactly that terrifying secret has been. Furthermore, while doing that very thing, I have large expectations for myself.
What expectations you may ask? Well for one, I expect myself to be thrilled at what I am choosing to do, because no one is forcing me to transition. Second, I expect myself to be better at my job than before. Third, I want to be able to handle any bumps or difficulties in the road with style and grace. Lastly, I expect myself to have a smile on my face. Too much? Maybe. Possibly. How about if I frame them as goals instead of expectations? Is that a bit more palatable? Regardless, these are things I am wanting from myself.
If you have not personally transitioned, then maybe you are at a loss as to the immense mental strength and courage it takes to do such a thing. Trust me, even though I am thrilled, it is still very hard; it's not a just a fabulous party where I am stylishly dressed! Now on top of that, let's add a job that most humans or other teachers don't ever want to do - teaching middle school students. Can you imagine just attempting to be in charge of thirty or so twelve to fourteen year olds? Now add in teaching standards, state testing, district expectations, parent expectations, making sure they are fed, clothed, and properly supplied, etc! There really is too much to list actually. Wanna come help??
So, uh, yeah, mental fortitude. I think I covered that fairly well. As a result of that effort, I am frequently super duper drained by the end of the day. Oh, shall we also add in that yes I am still caring for my wife who had foot surgery about 6 weeks ago? True, I don't need to do much for her personally, however, it does mean that I am now solely in charge of all of the duties of our household. Vacuuming, laundry, dishes, shopping, recycling, cats, dogs, bathrooms, garbage, weeding, lawn care, picking up dog waste, yard upkeep, etc., etc.! Normally I am in charge of the outside house duties and she is in charge of the inside house duties. Well being as she can't put any weight at all on her foot, that means that all duties fall onto my shoulders. Do you know what I am interested in getting? A maid and a yard human! Yup, that would sure come in handy.
Personally I am amazed that I found the time to even write this little lovely post. It has actually taken me about three or four days to do so though. No matter how much I list here, inevitably there are dozens of little duties that I have that will have failed to make that list. Can we just leave it at, I'm pretty darn overloaded? I think that shall suffice, for me at least!
This has translated to me cutting out things that are not essential. In many ways I am retracting my sticky tentacles and focusing on me, my wife, our household, and my job. In time things will loosen up and I will find the ability to resume a less stuffed to the gills existence. For now, it is what it is.
Love you!
Love yourself!
Love your life! And if you don't, change something and work your ass off to earn it!
The most amazing thing happened on the day I chose to wear this. I'm pretty sure it was either last Monday or Tuesday. Probably Monday, my first day back after winter break at work. One of the administrators at my school has asked for all teachers to go over the district's sexual harassment policy with our students at least once per quarter. I've decided to also include a brief discussion on what it means to bully and harass people in general. This particular time I included a brief discussion of LGBTQ+ issues. Things like the high rate of suicide, that most people will not say anything due to deep seated fears, and how we probably have 1 to 2 students in our own class who identify that way and have yet to let anybody know even though they know.
It was a fairly usual speech for me. Nothing all that out of the ordinary. However this time I did have a few new students in my classes. A student that I have only had for a month or two waited around after class while everyone else left. She came up to me and said something along the lines of "Mrs. Denithorne, I just wanted to say thank you for having that talk with us today. Especially the part about the LGBT community. So thank you very much because now I feel a little safer at this school. Can I give you a hug?" To which I said yes while choking back the tears. 
