Getting Proud of Your Crossdressing Journey

What would you consider to be your greatest achievement as a trans person or even as a crossdresser?

It’s okay if you’re not sure of what to answer, as it may be an ambiguous question.

We can be proud of different things about ourselves, but sometimes, we struggle to notice how far we’ve come.

It’s normal but may also harm our self-esteem.

If it happens, you may find some difficulties in pointing out what makes us special as people and seek other forms of validation.

You must understand how personal these achievements are and get to know your real.

This way, you may figure out what kind of struggles you had to face and which ones you’ve managed to surpass.

You need to track your own experience as a crossdresser to do so.

Think about when and if you came out, remember how you started your journey, and appreciate the self-knowledge.

As a crossdresser or trans person, you’re already brave and valid.

You had to build a lot of confidence to be who you are now.

I’ll talk about these common aspects of a crossdresser’s journey and explain why you should be proud of them.

I hope you’ll be able to see them as achievements and boost your self-esteem at the end of this article.

And at the end, to give you a more relatable example, I’ll talk about what I consider to be my greatest personal achievement as a gender-fluid person.

Why these achievements are personal

Before we start to think about the achievements, we must understand why they are unique to each person and what makes them a personal thing.

And I want to point out that each one of these achievements has a different meaning according to the context in which they happen.

And, of course, the context varies for each one of us.

We have our own lives, families, and friends, and each circumstance plays a part in the context we are inserted.

As a result, each trans person and each crossdresser comes across a different set of difficulties and situations.

And because of that, each achievement has a different meaning and a different value for each one of us.

It’s important to notice that some of them are common and may happen to many of us.

This is what makes us a community, and that’s why we can find ways to help each other.

We gain experience when we go through these difficulties, and sharing it makes our community grow stronger.

But even though we relate to what happens to other queer people, some things make each experience unique.

With that in mind, you must look at your achievements and validate them instead of using other people’s experiences as a parameter.

1. Coming out

This is one of the most difficult things to do in some cases, and it’s quite common to find trans people struggling with it.

It varies in difficulty from one context to another, but on average, it’s not an easy thing to do.

Cross-dressing or being trans are still taboo topics in many countries and for many families in each one of them.

This situation prevents them from talking openly about these subjects.

It also causes misinformation and ignorance to spread.

As a result, trans people and crossdressers may feel ashamed or even afraid of who they are, which makes it even more difficult for them to come out.

Another thing that may happen is that they have transphobic relatives that would mistreat them.

I’ve known people who were kicked out of their houses because of that and had to start living by themselves in apartments.

My point is that coming out as trans will make discrimination and bigotry more common in your life, and you’ll have to deal with new problems.

So, if you’ve managed to come out despite all of that, you should be proud.

It requires a lot of bravery and courage in most cases, as trans people and crossdressers know that life will be harder after coming out.

2. Being able to start your journey

With all of these difficulties in mind, starting your journey may also be a challenge.

The circumstances are often an obstacle, and many of us struggle to dress up for the first time.

Things tend to become easier after we start, but giving the initial steps may require an extra dosage of courage.

Crossdressers all around the world find themselves unable to have enough privacy.

And it’s difficult for trans people to figure out their gender identity.

Much of that is due to misinformation and prejudices, as people become afraid of stuff they don’t understand.

Because of that, starting your journey as a cross-dressing, or your transition as a trans person, are things to be proud of.

It requires you to seek knowledge about themes that are often neglected and avoided.

The discussion about gender identity has been repressed for centuries, and it caused people to repress who they were.

If you accept it and start to make an effort to express your true self, you’re already a winner and should be proud of this achievement.

3. Acquiring self-knowledge

All of the situations I’ve mentioned before may confuse trans people and crossdressers alike.

Not being taught about the existence of others like you may cause you to feel different.

Many trans people I know had a lot of difficulties figuring out who they were.

And it took even longer for them to understand that there was nothing wrong with it.

Self-knowledge is the key to comprehension and respect.

But society’s neglect of the trans agenda makes it difficult for people to discover themselves.

And information about gender identity is often treated with disregard.

You need to understand that it’s fine to be yourself and that expressing your gender identity won’t harm anyone.

But you’ll have to be too finite to understand this stuff since bigots and transphobes will tell you otherwise.

Ignoring these harmful thoughts will require you to go through a long journey of self-discovery, which demands a lot of patience.

But once you get to understand yourself and what you feel, things will be easier, and that’s something to be proud of as well.

4. Building confidence

Growing up in a transphobic environment may lead you to lack confidence.

You may feel like something bad is going to happen. I see society changing for the best.

But transphobia, prejudices, and bigotry are still common.

With that in mind, building confidence to keep cross-dressing or transitioning takes a lot of time and effort.

You’ll go through a lot of stuff once you start to be yourself, and many things will lower your confidence.

It’s not easy to emotionally recover from being harassed or misgendered.

Thinking about and going through this kind of stuff can destroy someone’s confidence.

If it ever happened to you, a lot of bad thoughts may have appeared.

And you may even have considered giving up on your journey.

You may have felt insecure about your physical appearance and gender expression.

Or thought that what you’re doing is wrong. But you can rebuild your confidence and start over.

With that in mind, managing to overcome this kind of difficulty and maintaining your confidence is also a great achievement.

My personal greatest achievement

I’m proud of my journey so far, and like every trans person, I’ve come across several obstacles.

But my personal greatest achievement may be the fact that I’ve managed to figure out who I am.

I grew up in a family with little discrimination,  and I knew they wouldn’t hate me for being trans if I ever came out.

But this was still taboo, and my parents seemed to be ashamed of talking to me about it.

I can’t blame them, but because of that, I didn’t know what it meant to be trans until my late teenage years.

I always felt something was off and that I wasn’t like other boys.

Sometimes, I had this wish of being a girl, and I knew I should try dressing up someday.

I had to do a lot of research by myself and read a lot of stuff about gender identity.

That’s how I found out I’m a gender-fluid person, and I’m proud of figuring it out the way I did, all by myself.

It isn’t easy to acknowledge all the stuff we had to go through to be where we are today.

But each difficulty we manage to overcome may be a great achievement when we put it into context.

Only you know how much you struggled to come out, to start dressing up, or even to figure out who you are.

Put all of that into perspective, and be gentle with yourself.

You deserve comprehension and acceptance for who you are.

But when the world makes it difficult to be yourself, existing is already a great victory.

After that, what do you think to be your greatest achievement as a trans person or as a crossdresser?

Share your experience with our sisters in the comment section!