@justtracyjustcause: We are born—and that is what we are. After that, we become. I am 5’2” and 230 pounds. I have always wanted two more inches of height, a neck worth speaking of, three or four more inches at the waist, and a weight of 125 pounds. That is the body I might have chosen. Alas, it is not the one I got. My body is not a clerical error. It is not the wrong body. It is the body that arrived—the one that carried me through every pleasure, injury, heartbreak, revelation and hard-won mile of my life. Attitude and expectation adjustment still in progress. We all carry an image of who we might have been: taller, thinner, stronger, softer, younger, prettier, more masculine or more feminine. But the imagined body is not proof that the actual body is wrong. It is proof that human beings can imagine—and suffer in the distance between reality and expectation. So what would happen if we helped young people accept themselves as they are: unfinished, uncertain and still becoming? A work in progress. You are born with a sex. The rest is expression. A boy may be gentle, beautiful, nurturing or flamboyant without becoming less male. A girl may be forceful, masculine, mechanically gifted, uninterested in motherhood or attracted to women without becoming less female. Clothing has no sex. Neither does a hairstyle, colour, occupation, temperament, talent or way of walking through the world. These are expressions—not biological verdicts. Perhaps the first question should not be: “What must we change about your body?” Perhaps it should be: “When did your body stop feeling like home?” What happened there? Was it puberty? Shame? Bullying? Trauma? Sexual attention? Rejection? Fear? Social expectations? Or the painful discovery that you did not resemble the kind of girl or boy the world expected you to be? We should not presume the answer. We should make room to find it. The goal is not to change the person. It is to help the person understand where body, identity and experience lost their alignment—and whether that alignment can be rediscovered. Not conversion. Integration. Not conformity. Freedom. You do not need to change your body to earn the right to express your whole self. Choose your clothes. Choose your name. Choose your work, your loves, your manner, your colours and your place in the world. Choose again tomorrow. You are not required to make one permanent decision about yourself before you have had the chance to become yourself. A decision closes the file. Choice keeps the future open. To thine own self be true. But remember: the self is still becoming. Your body is not a mistake. Your identity is not a verdict. And childhood is not a deadline. You have your whole life to choose—not decide. Just be yourself. Go on now, give it a try… but don’t forget your manners. 😇 ⸻ FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES Just Tracy, Just ’Cause. Parsimony. Clarity. Virtue. © 2026 Tracy Peressini. All rights reserved. #you #truth #expression #Love #Home

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Tuesday 25 August 2026 20:48:06 GMT