Life After Transioning

By Julia Gordon

Goal-setting, putting one's focus on some future attainment, is widely regarded as an aid to personal development as it can motivate us towards actions that bring our objective closer to realisation.  As we become who we think we are, the journey can feel like an endless path of stepping stones, small steps made up of "what to wear", "how to make-up", "who to tell", "hormones", "electrolysis", "surgery"!

Sometimes, however, that last goal is seen as just that - the last goal.  Surgery can occupy such a large space in one's thoughts that there is little or no room for anything else.  When this is the case, an individual can be left in a void following the final stages of their treatment, with an emotional fragility that threatens to undo much of what has gone before.

The more understanding there is about transitioning being simply the entry point to building a meaningful life for oneself, the more successful - in terms of experiencing oneself in a wider social context - one will be.

PS The photograph was taken at a Grand Masquerade Ball held in Aberdeen's Ardoe House Hotel on 14th March, on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Aberdeen MS Society.  Yours truly is seen hob-nobbing with a contingent from Inversneckie.