Retrospect
I've been putting off writing my final blog of 2015 until the right time. Oh, hell. I guess there never really is a right time to review the last 12 months. At the start of the year, I was in the process of having my front teeth pulled in order to get some dentures to finally smile again. Now as the year closes, I'm back in an apartment for the first time in nearly five years! Of course, the icing on this year's cake was seeing a longtime dream come true by legally becoming Kayleah. That was also later followed up by seeing my gender changed on my driver's license, too! The motel days are OVER!!! I never thought that I would return to driving a taxicab in this forsaken dump of a town. The last time I had driven a cab here i got the heave-ho. That was in 2008 with a small rinky-dinky company. Seven years later, here I am with yet another rinky-dinky company, only this one has an owner with some broken English continuity. Alas, it has helped with obtaining some threads, more nights ordering pizza, and buying some more crap online.
The cab company that I've been working with since May already had some obstacles even before I started working with them: 1)no main office; 2) they only have two (now three) working vehicles to go all over Rockford; the main dogs in town have 3x as many cars to work with; 3) they definitely weren't the first cab company many people would think to call with all the other companies in town; 4) the driving core had so much turnover that I'd wind up doing up to 16 hours on occasion. But the good thing about it was that I could at least take the cab home with me, and at times do my errands with it.
So 2015 started with me still living as, well, you know. Just not legally. One year earlier, I made the choice to go become a transwoman of color full-time because I liked myself this way than being my now-former male self. I didn't want to live with my late father's name anymore. For the longest time, I imagined seeing my name legally changed. The paperwork was ready for the day when it would happen...someday. You know how you are living as one name, yet legally another. Just let the place you're working at know about this...my state doesn't discriminate against transpeople changing their names/genders. All that started to change when I started working with that cab company. On October 7, two months after paying a staggering amount of dough just to file the paperwork, the day had come. Just after 10:15 am, I watched the judge make it official. I then went ahead and posted the picture with the announcement that I had only dreamed of:
The cab company that I've been working with since May already had some obstacles even before I started working with them: 1)no main office; 2) they only have two (now three) working vehicles to go all over Rockford; the main dogs in town have 3x as many cars to work with; 3) they definitely weren't the first cab company many people would think to call with all the other companies in town; 4) the driving core had so much turnover that I'd wind up doing up to 16 hours on occasion. But the good thing about it was that I could at least take the cab home with me, and at times do my errands with it.
So 2015 started with me still living as, well, you know. Just not legally. One year earlier, I made the choice to go become a transwoman of color full-time because I liked myself this way than being my now-former male self. I didn't want to live with my late father's name anymore. For the longest time, I imagined seeing my name legally changed. The paperwork was ready for the day when it would happen...someday. You know how you are living as one name, yet legally another. Just let the place you're working at know about this...my state doesn't discriminate against transpeople changing their names/genders. All that started to change when I started working with that cab company. On October 7, two months after paying a staggering amount of dough just to file the paperwork, the day had come. Just after 10:15 am, I watched the judge make it official. I then went ahead and posted the picture with the announcement that I had only dreamed of:
I think I received about 40 likes, plus a host of congratulatory comments from my facebook friends and sistas. Now, I sent my sister a letter with this news, along with a photo with my new look. She hasn't responded to date. Fuck it.
So, looking back on this year, I am saying it was great. However, I feel it can be improved. That's where I plan to do more in 2016 to make it more worthwhile and enjoyable.
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