When my sister and I were growing up, my mom kept a journal where she documented all the cute things we said. Among the many many MANY other memories my mom collected, one in particular stuck with me — when I was four years old, I looked at her and boldly asserted, “Mom, when I grow up, I want to be a girl. Because I want to be a mommy, not a daddy.”

Even though I didn’t have the words to describe it until I was a teenager, I knew that I was a girl from a very young age. It was not something I could really explain — rather, it was something that I simply felt within me, like a spark demanding to be fanned into flames. 

When I was twenty years old, I finally felt empowered to come out as transgender — and my goodness, how my world has exploded since then. As I grew more confident in myself and the validity of my identity, I grew more comfortable sharing my story with those around me. And when I saw the way that others responded to my vulnerability — well, I fanned those flames into a blazing inferno.

My deepest desire is that every transgender person gets to relish in the power that manifests when we are able to authentically and unapologetically live our truths. At least for me, there is nothing quite like it.

To a transer future, 

Arielle Rebekah