My name is Ashley Marie Rea. I am 39 for 30 more days as of this post. I started my transition in October of 2011. I was being very careful when I was sorting out my feeling. I am a daughter of a Transwoman. My father began her transitioned in 1991, my senior year. This is when I knew what a Transsexual is and that I had a word to what I was feeling. Most of my siblings (1 sister and 2 brothers) thought that I was mad at my father, but I was jealous of her. I decided to my secret hidden. I had other opportunity to come out when I was 21. I started to crossdress. I chickened out when my father's boyfriend outed me. I denied it and buried it even deeper into my subconscious.
I keep it that way for 15 years. In the meantime I got married in 2000. This is the biggest mistake I have made so far. I was getting ready to leave the marriage because I was have very strong feelings that I was having trouble hiding. That all changed when she told me that she was pregnant. This made me buried my feeling again. I was going to be a father. My son was born on Christmas eve 2006. I am very proud of my son. I tried to be a good father and husband. It was going great until April 2010. My grandfather passed away. This was devastating. He was my father figure. I was very close to him. He is the only one that I told my secret to when I was younger. I miss him so much. This event brought all of the buried feeling back to the surface.
I was spending so much time trying to hide my feelings, that I ignored everyone in my life (My step-son, my wife, and my son) My wife left me at the end of June 2011. I had no more excuses.
Shortly after my last birthday I started crossdressing when I was not at work. I continued to see a therapist about how I was feeling. In an appointment with him in December, he told me to just be gay. This hurt a lot. I never saw him again. I went to Texas (my home state) for my nieces 16th birthday party. I did not hide myself from the family. They did not ask me anything. When I returned I found a gender therapist and started the process of transition.
I went full time at the end of April and started HRT on May 1. I have already decide to have surgery. With exception of the custody battle the transition has been smooth. No issues at work or any where else. I hope to have the surgery in 2014 but 2015 at the latest.
More to come later
Hugs
Dear Ashley,
thanks by heart for your deepgoing views into your life. The way you've made your start to transition is great and surely had made you think a lot how to do it and what to take care of before you did your first steps. Congrats that your family seems to support you and that you could come so far yet. Your experiences give me once more a little bit more selfconfidence for the thoughts and ideas how to come out to my family ... Thanks so much and my best wishes for you and your furher way you still have to go! Love & many hugs from a german friend
Yours Julia

Comment by Rachel King on September 11, 2012 at 4:38am In spite of all the ups and downs, you had a loosely drawn up plan of what you wanted to do with your life.
Life throws up these curve balls and we have to go where our heart tells us is the right path.
Usually our head knows better but our heart gets in the way, so I applaud your ability to follow a path, be side-tracked by life, then re-find your path again.
I stress so many times that one has to have a plan.
I'll use a quote that the delectable Lana Moore used the other day,
If you fail to plan, plan on failing.( strewth, forgotten the original, but that will have to do)
Don't let your past weigh down your future, 'You can't change what was, only what will be."
Good luck with shared custody and good luck as your journey continues.
Plan your work, work your plan is a simple saying worth remembering.
Lana's was something like, "People don't plan to fail, they fail to plan." Of course, I, too, am remembering it when all I have to do is go read her comment again and quote it directly.
Fighting to find a way to stay male is something all of us TS try to do as best we can for as long as we can, unless we are incredibly smart and lucky enough to attempt this early in our lives.
Love the go be "gay" comment as if one could choose who they are. You have now spent decades trying to be male. How did that work out for you? Being gay would be cheaper, you'd have a better sense of style, and you'd be fashionable if you join that group... You wouldn't have to worry about your voice, or HRT. Maybe I should change my plan for my upcoming SRS and put $20 grand back into my bank. That sounds like a fabulous plan to me, if only it would work...
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