My Trans Ex-Girlfriend

WARNING: SERIOUS FEELS AHEAD.
Please enjoy this picture before delving
into the FEELS

Just over a month ago, my first girlfriend dumped me. It seems like it's been half a year. I guess it was one sided, because I learned more about myself than she ever did. I ended up confronting a lot of big questions that you, ladies and gentlemen and variations thereof and none of the above, might profit from.

I can't tell you how we met or where. None of that is important anyway. I will tell you, even though it hopefully won't be important in the future, that she was MtF transgender. She had begun hormone therapy a few months before. Her face alone was already beginning to feminize so much that a daub of makeup and a dress would let her pass all but the most careful inspection. She was slowly coming out to her classmates and professors as female although she wasn't yet living as a woman full time.

There are those, reading this article, that will want to commend me, a lesbian, for dating a trans woman, for keeping an open mind. For these people, I have a quick remark:

Shut. The. Fuck. Up.

On Confusion and Doubt

(S)

I often doubt myself. It’s one of those stupid habits I have where I over think everything and question all of my decisions until I’m utterly convinced I’ve done the wrong thing. As a bisexual, with a very fluid sense of sexuality, this can be difficult. 

March 1st: Self Injury Awareness Day

lifesigns.org

Trigger warning

So as you've probably guessed by the title, this isn't going to be a light-hearted post. But for me the topic of self-injury is very sensitive and personal, and I couldn't not write a post about it. So what is self-injury? Self-injury is a coping mechanism. An individual will inflict direct injuries to their body in order to deal with emotional pain, or to escape a feeling of numbness by causing themselves physical pain. Physical pain is often easier to cope with than emotional pain, it gives a person relief but only for a short period of time. Self-injury deals with the pain of a moment but does not deal with what is causing the pain. It allows people to feel like they are in control of their pain. This is why self-injury can become a habit for many people. Other people will self injure to punish themselves. Many people believe that self-injury is automatically linked to suicidal thoughts and behaviour, however this isn't always the case. In fact, it's often the opposite, people who self injure don't want to die, they just want to be rid of the pain, they self-harm to survive.

Self Assurance and Confidence - and Opinions

Hello again everybody. Hope you've all had a good week! It's Friday again, which means it's time for a heavy post by Jo. I'm quite an outspoken person. I stand up for things if I think they're right, talk up against them if I think they're wrong. I was lucky. I went 37 years before I got seriously burned enough to make me think I might have to change.

Change myself, change who I was, change.. into someone who didn't make a noise for stuff she believed in, because when it cost you people you love, it hurts like hell.  It doesn't really pay to have an opinion, about anything. Having opinions gets you in trouble. If you have an opinion about something - like for example, if you think fireworks are wrong, and you post this on your Facebook page, you stand the risk of being torn apart. Anyway, that's not really the point of this post. That's just something I wanted to say. 

It's a Dog's Life

Hi guys. Was sat here thinking what to write about, and then I realised something. For the past few weeks, my life has been about dogs.

Yes, I know.  While the rest of the world is celebrating the British voting positively on equality in marriage, my world revolves around dogs. But there's no doubt about it. Dogs have been the centre of my world, for the past three weeks.

First, my pitt bull died. If you read my earlier posts, you'd know he was 12, and he had cancer. I had to face putting him down, and then, about 10 days later, our newbie pup, Scooter, landed in our lives. We went through a bunch of shit, including would it be good for our existing dog, would it be disloyal to Buller, would we be able to support and look after a puppy. Nevertheless, here he is. Our lives are centered around peep and poop and house training this little bundle of fur and energy. And our older dog has taken to him like nobody's business. At nights, they rush around playing like escaped lunatics. But then this morning, while we were walking our child to the bus, we stopped to buy some bread rolls and all of a sudden, three huge dogs had run out of a house and attacked her.

It Does Not Get Better!

Greetings earthlings! Long time no write I suppose, but I do have a valid reason or two.

Today, in honour of Mental Health Week in Australia, I will be talking to you all about the It Gets Better project- one that sadly, my friends and I have taken to mocking every time one of us is having a rough day. Have you ever seen a video of someone else's successes and decided that made your life so much more worth living? Has someone saying little but "it gets better" when you're holding your vodka and asprin ever actually changed your point of view on life, or magically made you want to put the objects down and spend the rest of your days prancing around under rainbows singing the Teletubbies theme song?

For someone who's been on the brink of suicide far too often to count, I'll answer that for you: never.