Letting Me In

Today was a pretty special day, one so magnificent that words can't do it justice. It certainly didn't start out that way, but by the time lunch rolled around, something magical happened. I've been on record of saying how unhappy I am about my current employment state but it really has had nothing to do with the people I work with. For the most part, they are really great people and they've been very welcoming. But today, well, today was special as for the first time, I was let into their world. By that I mean I was welcomed into a sorority of such, a sisterhood if you will. I was, at least for this day, one of them and it felt so amazing.

It's been hard for some of them to get used to my new name as some have known me for nearly eight years. They've had a bit of trouble with the pronouns but by and large, they've treated me like I wanted to be treated. Today I got totally immersed into a world that was totally foreign to me. I saw how women interact when men are not around and as far as they were concerned, I was one of them. I was privy to things that wouldn't normally be talked about and I watched it all with both fascination and awe.

Being invited into that world that genetic women inhabit isn't an easy thing to do. For some women, but certainly not all, it's hard for them to let someone like me in. It's not that they don't like you or trust you, it's just that no matter how little you ever felt like a male, the fact is, you were one. Women, like men, like to have their own space, a space that isn't penetrated by members of the opposite gender. For guys, that might mean a poker game (one of the reasons I quit playing with friends) and for women it might mean lunch with friends. It can be anything really, but it is a fact that in certain instances, the two defined genders sometimes need their own world. Today, I got let in to a world that has forever been off limits. I liked it.