Things that make me unreasonably happy

Name

Ive always been worried about coming out to people as trans, u know? One thing that sucked the most out of everything was my name. I hated it so much, i couldn't stand hearing it whether it was my full or nick name. My parents shortened my nickname a few times before but my mom has recently started to do it a lot more (especially in front of my baby cousin and thats the only name my baby cousin says.) I decided that during a church summer thing, i would write my preferred name down instead of what everyone calls me.

I honestly didn't believe it.

Everyone was calling me by my preferred name. People that knew me previously even just used the name written down. Half of the people i used to know before the pandemic didn't remember me because of how much i changed (cutting like all my hair off, wearing masculine shorts, stuff like that) and they just read my name tag. I thought that everyone would call me my old nickname and i was going to hate it all. Instead, kids called me my preferred name, their parents, my co leaders, everyone called me my preffered name. I didn't know i could ever be as happy as i was then. Of course, i still present feminine to them (dont have the courage to come out, not even to my dad and explain to my confused mom) and i still go by she/her pronouns in public, but even just that small change made me feel so much better about myself. Its like a switch went off and i felt better than i had in years. One of my favorite people calls me by my preffered name, even before she knew it. Also, my grandparents on my mom's side has always done it even when they thought theu would only call me by my full name (my grandma loves it but she likes to use my nicknames) but theu were proven wrong. They actually call me by my preferred nickname more than my family and everyone around me does. Im curious if my mom had played a part in the whole thing. She was the first person i told and she is connected to every single person that has made the switch. Either way, i love it.