“No matter where you go, there you are.”
An interesting post on a popular internet forum pondered: Is it better to try to become the person you want to be? Or to come to terms with the person you are?
Sometimes the most basic questions are the most important and this one is pretty fundamental. I don’t know many people who are perfectly content with themselves. Everyone I meet wants to change something. Some people want to change so much it’s almost like they want to be a totally different person. I used to be one of those people.
The problem is that the question poses a false dichotomy – one that is embraced all too readily by anyone filled with shame. There is no such thing as a “person you want to be” which can be based in anything other than the “person you are.” Who you are is a combination of who you were in the past, who you are today, and who you will become in the future. Any projection of a future self which isn’t fundamentally connected to your present (and former) self is a fantasy.
And yet, despite its unbreakable tether to the potentially unbearable past and present, I don’t consider anything about that concept limiting. In fact I consider it liberating. It’s the liberation that comes when you realize how much you have the power to actually do, rather than only imagine. It frees you to fulfill your actual life rather than speculating about (and/or envying) potential lives. Realizing this truth transforms you from a supplicant pleading with the universe to an actor with the power to become.
Here’s one thing I wish I knew earlier: You must, must accept who you are to ever have a chance at becoming any kind of person you’ll truly want to be. You don’t have to accept where you are. You don’t have to accept your present circumstances or your current habits. You don’t have to accept the company you currently keep or the life you’re currently living. But you have to accept yourself deeply and unconditionally. After all, there is no where you can go in life where you are not coming along for the ride.
There’s a huge and often under-appreciated lesson relevant to gender transition in this notion. Despite appearances to the contrary, gender transition does not – cannot – fundamentally change a person. It can change your shape. It can change your life experiences. It can change your relationships. But it cannot change who you really are. Nothing about the mechanics of transition – the hormones, the surgeries, the lifestyle changes – is going to make you another person. It can’t take away your past. It can’t change you from hating yourself to loving yourself. Transition may open up promising future possibilities, but those can never be more than part of the greater whole of your life.
The way to walk into transition – any life transition – is to embrace it as an opportunity to become. But you can’t become something you’re not. You can’t become someone without a past. It’s all you – all of it. If you despise yourself, even in part, you hold yourself back from your true potential.
So, here’s my answer to the question posed earlier: Is it better to try to become the person you want to be? Or to come to terms with the person you are?
Yes, and yes, but not necessarily in that order.
“But you have to accept yourself deeply and unconditionally. After all, there is no where you can go in life where you are not coming along for the ride.”
Why did I start crying when I read that? Because your words touched something deep inside. I get affected emotionally when I find something so truthful, something that hits so close to home.
Sorry to gush, but how do you keep coming up with amazing posts like this?
I’m with you 100%. Your post simply resonates with me…..
I’ve spent many years hiding and hating what makes me different, this nagging gender identity issue, and have only recently began to realize that – in the right perspective – it’s the very thing that makes me who I am.
The best parts of me are so deeply tied to it that it’s something I no longer seek to change – but something I need to accept and embrace.
A brilliant and much needed message. Thank you Diana.
Very nice post. Why are you still disappointed?
Well, that’s better
Ditto, Ariel. Beautifully said, Diana.
xoxo
“It, (KNOWING you possess the power to actually do), frees you to fulfill your actual life rather than speculating about (and/or envying) potential lives. Realizing this truth transforms you from a supplicant pleading with the universe to an actor with the power to become.” ~Diana
BRILLIANT!
“Nothing about the mechanics of transition – the hormones, the surgeries, the lifestyle changes – is going to make you another person” ~Diane
INCISIVE & PROFOUND!
Beautiful and moving. This really spoke to me.
I see the mechanics of transition as merely tools that helped me accomplish other changes but were not, in and of themselves, significant. Mostly, their contribution was to improve my self-confidence.