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Changing the world - what's your purpose?

Discussion in 'Gender Identity and Expression' started by Eveline, Jul 27, 2015.

  1. Eveline

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    Over my time on these forums, I've met people who I perceived as kind, caring and fairly brilliant who I've been perfectly happy to view as friends. This image has helped me move forward and be comfortable with the thought of transitioning. However, one thing that I've noticed is that I never hear people talk about great aspirations. I suspect that the emptiness and depression that is so characteristic of pretransition people who are trans takes its toll and most people can only focus on their desire to live without the pain.

    This has left me somewhat disturbed because in the end, what's the point of transitioning if you can't leverage the journey and hardships that you are going through to become a better person in the future, someone who will be able to help and support others. Serve as examples to others of surviving and becoming better for it. This journey cannot simply be about the physical changes and normalization of your life. There must be something more to it that will give justification for the huge cost that such a journey takes.

    Am I deluding myself into believing that there is more to this journey than simply physical change? This is a thought that crossed my mind today. Maybe it is better for me to just accept my fate and save my family the trauma inherent in change. If there is nothing more to this journey, what's the point? Is the best that we can strive for is to be like princessJoules or Caitlyn Jenner? Where are the spiritual leaders that have survived the journey and shown how great we can really be? I see people here that have potential to be anything yet they don't see it in themselves.

    What made me most uneasy was to talk to people who are late in transitioning and all I could see were people who still suffer from learned helplessness; they are still trapped in the prison of their minds, unable to overcome the earlier traumatic experiences. Yes, they are more happy with their body, but the confidence in their ability to change the world is just not there and that makes me truly sad...

    With this in mind, I want to present to each and everyone of you a question. After you complete this journey and can pass fully. After you complete this monumental task. What will be your purpose? How will you make a difference to others, make their lives better? How will you go about changing the world, one small step at a time?

    (&&&)

    Yael
     
  2. KayJay

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    Well that was very deep, I wasn't really expecting the thread to be this heavy.

    To answer the posed question: I don't know if I have any purpose, if I do I have yet to find it.

    This may be crude but I used to be a depressed man, now I'm a depressed woman. My body mostly matches my mind now and yet I'm still suffering the same way I was before I started transition, just instead of being depressed by all the obstacles, by what can be, will be and can't be... I'm depressed because I'm not happy with my life. I've never met a trans person who doesn't have (or had, at least) depression. I'm sure they are out there though.

    I don't think the end goal of [my] transition was to make my life better. I'm still in the same rut I was before I transitioned, other than the fact I am much more comfortable with my appearance. That's why we do it though. Feeling like you need to transition is such a big burden that it makes it seem near impossible to get your life where you want it. So that becomes the goal, transition not to fix your life but to make that burden lighter or go away completely so that you can focus on the other things in your life that were too hard to do while being mindfucked by dysphoria.

    I think why it is so hard to meet or hear of trans people who aren't still depressed is because transitioning won't make depression go away. You still need to treat it and work pretty damn hard to help yourself.

    I've met a few trans people who are part of the community in my region who do great things to help people now.

    I guess the short and simple for me is: transition couldn't fix my life but it was a necessary step to get me in a good enough mental state to start fixing my life.

    Just by transitioning we are all taking a small step in changing the world. We are showing that it is possible to transition and be happy. Seeing that alone can help others, I remember I'd look at time lines of people thatcthey made of their HRT journey. I thought "Look at how happy she is". I didn't care how good they looked or anything, sure it'd be nice to be pretty but if you see the depression in their face and eyes in the early pictures and then see at the end big smiles with joy, that right there can help others. We may not see it as helping anyone but ourselves, but your transition may help someone else down the line and if all I went through only helped one person I'm OK with that. At least it helped a little.
     
  3. randomconnorcon

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    I want to be a screenwriter and a novelist and I might even write non fiction at some point. I want to write about issues that really affect people. I want people to watch my films and read my books and understand. And maybe learn.

    It might not change the world, but I can hope.

    What else I do will be known as I grow up. Transition is just something for myself, something I'll do in between everything else.
     
  4. Invidia

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    Well, I dream big, like you.

    I look at the world and I see a lot of problems that spawn darkness and is so painful for so many. I see that the necesssity of it is an illusion comfortable to some.

    I can dream of the future, even though I'm barely on my feet in the present.

    I don't know exactly what I want to do. I might start working at some human rights, environmental rights or other rights organization and see where things go.
    Maybe I'll study ecology and use it for working with environmental rights. Not sure.

    I'm writing a book... It outlines the possibility of a brighter day.

    It's a difficult question. I know in my heart I want things to change in the world. But I'm not exactly sure yet how to do it; I'm not sure which part to play.
     
  5. FrereApothicair

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    On a small-ish scale, I want to help prevent big soul-eating corporations from getting away with fraud and stealing from the economy and those that really need the tax breaks. (Audit and tax law, bruh.) On a personal scale, I want to achieve inner peace and true compassion--which is hard to do when I'm fighting a constant battle with myself. On a global scale, I would love to contribute to human rights campaigns, and to the education of the public for the betterment of all people--feeding the hungry, reducing wealth inequality and intolerance, improving access to education and healthcare, and basically just building a better, more compassionate and brotherly world for everyone. (My granddad calls me a socialist, lol.) I'm all for fulfillment of personal goals and achievement of whatever individuals may identify as "success" (yes, even if that is the accumulation of vast wealth)--I just don't think it should be at the cost of anyone else's health, happiness, or liberty in life. Maybe I'll get into politics--help fight for a stronger economy, and reducing poverty, and achievable ways to heal the environment.
     
  6. MetalRice

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    I want to be a writer when I grow up.
     
  7. Matto_Corvo

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    I want to be a writer of great book series, even if it is only great to a small number of people.
    I want to earn enough money to live. I want to earn enough money to rescue animals and donate to shelters. I want to donate money to LGBT causes.

    There is a lot I want to do.
     
  8. Daydreamer1

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    I change my mind with what I want to do with my time and life.

    Some days, I see myself being an indie filmmaker with a small but dedicated cult following. Other times I see myself doing activism work to help trans kids with my partner. Hell, I have times where I don't see myself going anywhere and I become another statistic before I'm 30. It depends on the day you catch me honestly. If I had it my way right now, I'd be doing minor activism work and make low budget horror movies on the side with another friend.
     
  9. Posthuman666

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    I wish to be a marine biologist, exploring the oceans, while painting and writing books, and playing music at home. Maybe I can help someone feel better with themselves.

    But on a bigger scale, I wish to burn the closet. Turn it to ashes. One day people won't have to come out, because being LGBT+ will be accepted. We already got marriage equality in the US, but what about the other countries. Equality everywhere! And less LGBT+ violence. And no more homophobia and transphobia. A good place.
     
  10. Kaiser

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    I could give you a fancy and elaborate answer, but I'll just say this:

    Anger used to dominate my life, and to a degree it still does. However, it doesn't call the shots. I utilize it for my own means and ambitions. It's a never-ending fuel source for me, basically.

    Depression I've dabbled with, but it fades quickly. I'm too proud to ever wallow in depression for long, because it conflicts with my ego. I don't like to feel powerless or useless, which is a motivation in itself. I've realized, feeling down can be useful, as it allows me to rest and vent, but to stay like that is wasting time, time that could go elsewhere and into productivity. If I do nothing, how can I expect nothing?

    My exterior doesn't match how I feel. While that is frustrating, it does me no good to remain frustrated. I can work on many things in the meantime. Focusing solely on my being transgender wastes time, and if I do nothing during this, what is there to look forward to after I transition? I'd only be setting myself up for more disappointment, and that isn't wise nor healthy.

    As for my ambitions, well, I want to see just how far I can get to the top, before I wither away...
     
  11. Florestan

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    I plan to go into a career as a composer and novelist. So far, most of what I've done artistically has been catharsis for my own sake. If I were to become successful in publishing anything, though, my goal would be to help others who've faced similar struggles find hope. On a more personal level, I want to become a better friend to those around me and make peace with my family. Lastly, I want to explore my spirituality and form a better understanding of who I really am.
     
  12. KaelTail

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    I want to tear down the walls that people believe exist between them and everyone else.

    I feel like this was my spiritual purpose. I feel like I was put here to be force of change, no matter how small, and that I was born as a trans person so I could understand that breaking down the boundaries that our minds erect for "protection" really makes us stronger, freer, and more connected to each other.

    It's still really difficult for me to describe what I mean by all this, but if you've ever seen the movie Powder, the scene at the carnival when Powder talks to Lindsey pretty much wraps it up. People don't see each other through all the walls they make and I want to help them see, even if it's just a few people whose lives I touch. I want that change to be my legacy.

    In the very least, I want my life to have effected people around me positively. I want to bring smiles to peoples' faces when they feel defeated and give them hope when they feel lost. Life has taught me to be humble; going through every trauma and every heartache and every low point gave me a lot of compassion for the suffering of others. I want to use my experience to help.
     
  13. Simple Thoughts

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    I don't know if I fit into this catagory or not. Been working out the details of that, but I'll toss an answer your way.


    For me I've been battling with depression for as long as I care to remember. I have some days where I get really energized and motivated and then most of the time I can barely muster the energy to get outta bed or do anything at all.

    I know what I want to do with my life and what I want to be. I've been coming closer and closer to that answer over the course of this year and I think that's been working wonders for me. Just having this defined sense of what direction I want to make my life travel has made me feel a lot better, but now I'm facing the roadblock of taking those first steps.

    I've been putting a lot of thought into all these things, both who I am and what I want to do lately. At work I've been imagining who'd I'd be and I'm going to be an animator. I don't know how well it will work out, but I'm going to give it my all and do my best to make it work.

    I want to branch into other areas as well. Like right now I'm writing song lyrics for a story album with the intent of finding people to perform it sometime in the near future and then when I get all the tracks recorded I'm going to animate them and kinda pull a daft punk and have the music videos for each song tell the story ( the songs themselves will also tell the story, but in a more abstract way )

    I've also been having a lot of thoughts about how I'd present and who I'd be and I honestly am starting to believe that I may wind up being primarily a crossdresser. I won't know for sure until I try it for the first time, but everytime I'm at work I just let my mind wander off and imagine and my brain seems to default me that way and I'm starting to think that's just who I want to be and if so I'm going to pursue it.


    Tldr; Imma be a crossdressing animator who also writes song lyrics and then animates the music videos.
     
  14. CJliving

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    I don't really know if I apply to this because despite having done nothing to my body and definitely not passing, I don't really see myself transistioning farther than this (at least not anytime soon). But I have goals and dreams. I'm planning on going back to Canada in a year and a half, where I'll be going back to school twice. I'm going to get my Ontario ESL teaching licence and I'm going to get a Masters in Counselling. I want to translate that into working with youths and possibly even motivational speaking. I also plan on adocating for various educational reform policies (including many regarding LGBTQIA+ education and inclusion in the public school environment).
     
  15. DreamerBoy17

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    This is just in general, not specifically trans* related:

    I've asked myself this question before. Eventually, I want to become a teacher in language arts or history of some form. I hope to find a wife, maybe raise some kids. Donate to charity, perhaps get involved in some protests. And just generally make a good impact on other peoples' lives. Because if each of us are doing these things to make the world a better place, be it something small like being funny and putting a smile on someone's face, or something larger, like participating in activism, together we can form a better world.
    Make a positive impact in peoples' lives, that's my purpose.
     
  16. Katie J

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    Where I see myself after my transition to female, is working as a computer engineer or network engineer in the Abaco Bahamas. Spending every second of free time on the beach in my bikini. And having a small sailboat or a hobie cat that I can use to get to the other nearby islands. I wouldn't mind running a small beach side school in my free time to teach people about computers and networking that would also be a safe place for LGBT youth to come to if they are in need of help or a place to stay. That's were I see myself in the future, living for today instead of waiting for tomorrow and being happy everyday I wake up.

    But first I have to learn how to love myself and build up enough courage to come out to my girlfriend as trans.
     
  17. Cynders

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    I don't know exactly what I want to be yet, I just know I want to help people.