Well, today was long and it felt odd. I felt somewhat isolated by my students and perhaps it’s because I’ve let my beard grow some. The challenge has been how much do I hide and when do I let knowledge out. I still believe in not being stealth as honesty can be the best policy. But sometimes it is also good to do this delicately and with grace so that it allow others to come to grips with this change, even if they don’t see me everyday. People have built in expectation of things and how people are. Genders are social constructs that others understand and they often get rigid when faced with the unknown or different.
But that will be things they will have to address and there is nothing I can do, unless they broach it with me, to help them come to terms with it. On a plus, a couple of former colleagues from my Canadian office are very aware of my transition and supportive of it. This will be helpful as I’ll probably visit the office in December and it’ll be nice to see old friends then.
That all said, today gave me a taste of what is up-and-coming over the next few months as my schedule will be busy. And that will allow me to keep moving and have less of a chance to experience DVT. I’ll probably not be able to enjoy as many cigars as I’ll be too busy travelling and such (which often have non-smoking policies — which is fine, understandable and acceptable to me). This will mean I’ll be limited to the weekend and, at the least, my “stash” will last for long time. In fact, it’ll allow for some cigars to age nicely in my humidors and thus when I do enjoy them, they’ll be even more enjoyable.