Affirming Me.

Carol Robson BMedSci (Hons)

2004 was good year for me, in that I graduated from the University of Sheffield with a BMedSci (Hons) in Health and Human Sciences also having been given the Prof Brian Edwards Award for Health and Related Research. 

Why was it a good time many may ask, many people go to University and get their degrees?  Well! I was fifty six year old woman, however, most importantly I was a fifty six year old trans woman who had transitioned three years earlier prior to entering University and I was  then six months away from my Reassignment Surgery.

 At my graduation I had met the parents of the younger girls who had become my dear friends over that last three years.  Many of them had thanked me for being a sort of Uni mum to their daughters, that they had felt reassured that their girls had someone close by to turn to when they needed help.  Again the affirming of me as just another woman doing probably what women do best?

During my time at University I was the first undergraduate in my faculty to run their own seminar (on transsexuality) after doing that embryo seminar I have now done many more at various settings.

2005

A wonderful start to the year.

The Gender Recognition Act, first applications in January.  We see the fruition of the hard work done on behalf of the Trans Community.

January saw me filming for my part in a Documentary Series Sex Change to be shown later in 2005 on Discovery Health, hopefully, this will show the general public that we do lead authentic and fulfilling lives, also what we have gone through to live our true lives.

My surgery on Feb 1^st, which I believe was the start of my true transition.  The joy I felt of re-discovering myself and my body. The excitement to a certain extent, of losing my virginity, five months after my surgery.  The acceptance now of my own sexuality: lesbian, although I had been with a guy, that was just the fact that I had to test the water so to speak, it did not change how I felt about my sexuality, it affirmed my feelings of being a gay woman.

Finally I got around to constructing my web site and getting it online whilst recovering from my surgery.

Then at the end of July applying for my birth certificate, which for me was the final piece of the jigsaw.  I know it is only a piece of paper, but it is about the affirmation that this piece of paper gives me, it is my validation.