Hi

[Guest peav]

Well i'm going to try this again since the last one turned out wrong "my bad "

My name is Randy I am a 19 year old male all my life from a very young age I have always wished to be female. When I was around age 15 or 16 I learned that you could transition which made me happy and depressed at the same time. Happy because I knew I could finally be what I always wanted to, but the depression out weighed the happiness. See being 19 I can make my own decisions but I still live at home and have not started college yet. The problem is my family and friends. My family because I dont know that they would never ever accept me for what I am, and my friends would give me alot of crap for it. I hope some day to transition hopefully while still young but I just dont know how to tell everyone yet.

[Guest Emily.SoCal]

Heya, Randy!

Welcome to the Playground! Don't stress about earlier. I'm not even sure what happened, but just know that your welcome.

I can relate to your situation with your family. I've gotten in touch with the woman inside of me more and more over the past few years and a lot of that coincides with getting out of my family's house two years ago. I hope that kind of independence is around the corner for you too. The main thing I wish I had done while I was still "in hiding" while living with family was to talk to a therapist about my feelings about my gender. It doesn't have to even be a gender therapist (you know, if you want to keep things low key) though I can tell you that my experience with a gender specialist has been wonderful so far. At the very least a regular therapist could help you figure out how to talk to your family and eventually recommend a gender specialist if that's where you want to go.

In the meantime we're here for you. I'm only out to one friend, so I know how it is to have to keep things under wraps with family and friends. And so do a lot of the guys and gals on this board. See you around!

-Emily

[Guest Irielle]

Hi Randy and let me be only the first of many who are going to come say hello.

You will have lots and lots of support from everyone here. Don't try to do too much too soon, take your time with your transition. Everyone here is going through or has gone through what you are experiencing. This is a totally safe place so you can be honest here when you can't in real life.

There are always great cookies and brownies and someone will be along soon with more.

Let us know how you are doing! There are wonderful people who will be along soon to say hello.........

Irielle

[Guest Zabrak]

Welcome to Laura's Playground, peav. Take a good look around at all the links and info there is here - theres TONS that'll help you start on your path if you choose to. You could also explore the MTF(male to female) forum for more of a insight. If you need any more help then feel free to mail me once you have you've posted enough to use it.

Hope you enjoy your stay.

[Guest Elizabeth K]

PEAV

howdy howdy howdy

So glad you are here - seems you have some ideas of what you want and some problems on how to get there. Well the teen forum is EXCELLANT, so don't forget to post there too - you are certainly invited to look EVERYWHERE and we want you to jump on in - we are here to help each other. I even snoop in the FTM area to see what they are up to - grin. I am one of the Seriously Senior members, so I usually leave direct advice for your peers to give.

I do want to say you will probably find someone who's "been there, done that!' at Laura's. And if you like chat - try that too.

So look out for coco and cookies - they's a comin'

WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME

Lizzy

[Guest Kelly Ann]

Hi Peav...welcome to Laura's...it is a playground...and you are allowed to play or be serious or as cool as you want to be. There is no-one here that will be nasty or funky to you, you can join in on any conversation as long as it's topic related. There is a tremendous amount of info available to you here...explore...come on out of your cave and discover that you ARE NOT ALONE...isn't that a strange concept? It's actuallt pretty warm and friendly around here too. Your new friend, Kelly Ann

[Guest Frank67]

Hi Randy

welcome to this side and I see you already met some great people like Zabrak, Lizzy and some others and like they say look around and ask any questions you have.

Frank

[Sally]

Oh Randy,

I was working tonight, I'm a photographer and Saturday nights are busy times. Let me hang up my coat and get you some of that cocoa that Lizzie mentioned. Have a seat by the fire, I have some fresh baked cookies from this afternoon if Zabrak didn't find them. The food and fire may be virtual, but the warmth and friendships are very real.

Look around all of the forums, explore the chat and feel free to ask questions, post opinions and give advice.

You are among friends - more like family so don't be shy, we are all here to support each other.

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest Irielle]

Sally you are a photographer? How cool - what kind of photos do you take? Are you film or digital, or both?

I know it's a little off topic - oops!! But I had to ask

[Guest JoanDS]

Hey, Randy!

I'm new here too, I think we actually signed up the same day

While this whole thing is very new to me, I did want to tel you something that I've learned over my 35 years of being very much an individualist:

To heck with your friends.

Family is a little different (although ideally you could say to heck with them too) because you are to one degree or another kind of stuck with them, and believe me, I know how hard dealing with that will be.

But don't worry about your friends. If they 'give you crap' tell them to pound sand. If they're caring, loving, understanding people, they will come around (although this kind of revelation can take even caring, understanding people a while to deal with, because they feel they're losing their friend that they've come to know). If they are not caring, loving and understanding people, you don't want them around anyway. I know it's cliche, but it's totally true.

As someone who is about to go off to college, this is a perfect time to remake your life. Think about why your friends would hassle you, if you don't like the answers, then you don't need them around. If you make a decision to not let them get to you, then you have just made your situation that much easier. Now you only have to worry about yourself and to a lesser extent, your family.

I'm not saying that we don't need friends, we do, but we need TRUE friends, people who help make our lives easier, not the other way around.

HUGS!

-Joan

--<--<@

[Guest Donna Jean]

Hey, Randy!

Let me welcome you, too.....

That fire is nice and toasty and the goodies are wonderful! (Sally...hand me a cookie, OK?)

You will find lots of love, friendship, and caring here....not like many of those other sites...

You'll be safe here...lots of good people see to that, so, feel free to open up ...we care!

It's so nice to have you here!

XXOO

Donna Jean