It may not be where she wanted to go, but it was where she needed to be.
Added 2024-03-27 11:45:35 +0000 UTCValentine sipped her coffee to hide her expression as she looked down at the picture marked “before.”
It was a candid shot of a man working on a car engine. She had forgotten how rough and how large her hands used to be. Her eyes drifted over to the delicate slender hand and narrow wrist wrapped in pearls. She likely didn’t have the strength to crack the nut on an alternator anymore.
The next picture was marked “Orientation Day” it was the same man dressed in a schoolgirl outfit with sloppy makeup and a scowl.
She flipped ahead, “first day after THE operation” the makeup was better but the eyes looked haunted.
She skipped a dozen other images as the subject grew more feminine but the scowl remained.
At last she came to graduation day. At last she found a smile on the face she now saw in the mirror every day. She remembered how much better life was once she accepted that she was a woman and there would be no going back. Once she allowed herself femininity, she learned to embrace it. It made her happy!
“Thank you for this album!” Valentine said to her wife, Emily. “And thank you for sending me to the retreat! I know I said I didn’t want this, but now I know it’s for the best”
