This project has been a good few years in the making from the heady days of 2004 when I first saw Friends Reunited, joining up in time for the New Year of 2005, finding people from my past schools I hadn't heard much from ages and talking freely about how that boy felt in the classroom as much as what we're doing and where we are living now.
Words that were used were "unforgettable" and "inspiring" and many others that I'd of never of put in any narrative about me cos back then the thin line between acting in "code" and just acting on your natural impulses could of led to people losing respect as I moved from being pretty okay with being a boy and being with boys to the misunderstood points that aligned with the having this feminine side and needing to have a connection let that side out.
It appears decades on that people "got" that and actually respected how that side made me different. Some used what slim opportunities to the max which were available to help me let that out by letting me in what were otherwise all female spaces and others would find unoccupied storerooms and switch my trousers for the girls uniform skirt as we tried to uncover what was actually me.
That era had its confusions as much as today other peoples attempt to own narratives about them lead to pushing those of us who aren't transgender out of the variance which ultimately male or female a good number of us are.
They knew I was very much a feminine boy who liked to wear skirts and had this feminine side rather than "being" a girl, in so many ways more the boy version of girls world of the Tom Boy who liked being a girl too even if she had a masculine side.
Those of us in that mix own us and the way we take it into our lives.
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