Heard this term a lot, I don't really understand it. I thought it's like some form of self-acceptance? I didn't do anything like that though. I was reading some stuff about pop music, and by and by got lead to a site about Kim Petras, saw the trans stuff there, and said "Yup that's me" Did I do it wrong D:
There's no right or wrong way, everyone's path is different. In my case at the age of ~19 I was ignoring / rationalizing feelings I was having. Then one day on the bus on the way to university just pondering to myself it really was like a switch went off.
I think it's great that you didn't need to go through that process. But for some of us, especially those of us who come from communities where being queer is viewed as being inherently flawed, or not even legitimate as an orientation, it can be much harder to come out to ourselves. When I first started suspecting that I might be lesbian, I was unable to think about it or process it for years because of all the times I had heard that having sex with someone of the same gender is basically evil. I literally wasn't able to think about it because it was so distressing to me.
There's no wrong way, but perhaps I can elaborate on "coming out to yourself". You see, I was raised in a conservative Christian home, and I was a complete homophobe for a long time. When I started to realize I wasn't totally straight/cisgender, I was in denial and I freaked out, refusing to think I was anything other than what was "acceptable". It took me several years of struggling to come out to myself, and accept myself no matter what my gender/sexual orientation. ^_^
I was kind of the same way as you, Naren. I was curious as to what a transgendered person was...did some research and when I found out I was all "Welp, would you look at that, that's me." I didn't really go through a self-acceptance though because I was happy that I finally figured out who I was. I just went through a depression phase, because I didn't know how to tell anyone and I was all by myself at the time.
