Possibilities

For so long now I’ve been focused on transition, on RLE, on GRS, on becoming me on the outside as well as inside. Yes, I’ve done other things, triathlons, burlesque, belly dance but in the background there has always been the fact that I needed to bring my body and spirit into alignment.

Now that I’m simply dealing with the day to day reality of being post-op it’s time to bring a new focus to my life, it’s time to actually make the most of the life that I now have, to make the most of having got rid of having to spend my life as a male when I never really was.

Triathlons and burlesque, I can actually do something with these now. Is that all though?

No, it’s not.

For a while now I’ve been trying to develop a persona for my burlesque alter-ego. I had an idea about who she was and it involved Steampunk. Mira D’Glass who is my alter-ego is an adventuress, a dancer and a sophisticated lady depending on the situation she finds herself in.

I’ve recently finished working on a character profile for her based on a large number of questions (about 80). Each question is designed to expand on who she is, her likes and dislikes, her background and a number of other areas.

Being an adventuress she is going to need a suitable costume. Mira is familiar with various weapons and combat skills. With that image in mind and also with the idea of a set of metal fans for performing burlesque routines with I started looking at metalwork courses. I found a place in Glastonbury that teaches blacksmithing, it’s not an overly expensive course and it teaches you the technique needed to make a number of things from nails and rivets, to a utility knife and a short sword. Both of these would be very useful additions to Mira’s costume.

Of course a sword needs a scabbard and she would only conceive of using a leather scabbard. Leather working courses are going to be next on my list of things to look at.

If Mira is going to be proficient in the use of various weapons then she is bound to be able to use a bow, with the result that archery lessons would be an obvious thing to consider.

So many things to explore just to develop a burlesque alter-ego, so many things to explore because they would be interesting and give me the chance to develop new skills.

And then of course there’s the burlesque itself. Being part of a dance troupe is going to be fun, learning new routines and performing them as part of the troupe will be a dream come true. Going to along to the weekly troupe practice and especially to the monthly session where we perform for each other will be just the thing I need. Having a monthly session to focus on will force me to look at the ideas I’ve come up with for routines and actually flesh them out into something that could be brought up to a performance standard. Right now I have every monthly session up until the end of the year planned out with a different routine for each.

Beyond burlesque is triathlons. I’ve loved doing these over the last few years and there are races I want to revisit as well as do for the first time. Even better is that in 2 years’ time I will be able to compete against other women for prizes and age group places, the latter meaning that I can focus on getting to the level where I can qualify for Kona and the Ironman World Championships, a race I would love to do.

But life isn’t just about triathlons and burlesque, there are so many more possibilities. I have the chance to do more writing, to take the idea I have for a novel and actually write it.

Beyond that, who knows? Right now the future looks amazingly bright, and there are so many possibilities, so many things I can do. The only real limit to what I can do, what I can achieve is me and, having reached the point in my life I have, the things that were holding me back are now gone and I’m free to try and fulfill my potential.

Life is uncertain, but it certainly has possibilities.