Nice to meet you!

I just turned 21 recently. For the better part of my life I thought of my gender as a non-issue, mostly cause I was fully ignorant to any difference between sex and gender. Then when I learned more about that difference and thought about it seriously, it started driving me bonkers! The last few weeks have been like :bang: :bang: :bang: so much my head aches.

Then I found you all, and figured this would be a good place where I could spill my feelings before taking the next big step and telling my close family how I really feel. I want to do it soon.

Anyhoo, other stuff about me you might wanna know or maybe not (who knows) I love creative writing and hope to be a real author someday. Also I admire voice actors/actresses a lot ... kind of too hesitant to get into acting for real though, that takes serious guts which I don't have! Intellectually the most interesting things to me are religion and philosophy, I like how people grapple with the "big questions," and the mythologies/beliefs used to try and make sense of the universe. In my spare time I like playing video games, a lot of smash bros. recently, plus reading the manga for One Piece and Fairy Tail (the soundtrack for the Fairy Tail anime is so good my heart belongs to it.)

Kind of an infodump, but that's the best way I think you can get to know the basics about me fast. Since I am all-new here, does anyone have advice on where I should post some of my major questions, like "I feel X, is my gender Y or Z?" or "How can I tell my family?" Thanks for any support you can give, it is much appreciated!