I'm not me

Part 1

Charlie had always known he was different. He hated being placed in a box and being told he needs to be a man. He hates seeing, hearing or being invited to gender reveals or anything around gender. He did not know what it was, until a few months ago he when he was doing his monthly reading about different identities within the LGBTQIA+ community as he wanted to keep up with the changes, so he could be the best ally not only for his friends but for those who may not have anyone to talk to.

You see once Charlie finished school he went to university and became a therapist, so it is also apart of his job to stay up todate with anything that could affect his clients.
He had always known about the trans community because his best friend Elle is transgender and sadly had to watch her go through a very rough last few months at school before moving to higgs.

That day Charlie was studying and Nick was not home. Charlie only works 3 out of the 7 days of the week, where as Nick works 5 out of the 7 being a teacher at a special education school working with students in the sports department, allowing them to develop their physical skills and having a chance to experience the same things as any other child.

As Charlie was reading he came across a website about the trans umbrella and clicked the link which lead him to a page with lots of different identities. Charlie's heart raced as he scrolled through the website, as each term unlocking a floodgate of emotions he had long suppressed. The weight of societal expectations, the pressure to conform to a binary understanding of gender, had always stifled him. But here, among the diverse array of identities, he felt seen in a way he never had before.

With each new term he encountered, Charlie felt a piece of himself click into place. Labels such as Nonbinary, genderqueer, agender, gender fluid ect – each resonated with a different facet of his identity, offering him a vocabulary to express the complexities of his experience.

"Omg there is a lot, I did not even know there were this many." Charlie thought to himself. Tears blurred his vision as he realized that his feelings of discomfort and dissonance had a name, a community, and a history. The journey of self-discovery wasn't easy, but in this moment, he felt a sense of liberation unlike anything he had experienced before.  he quickly wiped his check as he felt tears run down his face.

For the first time in his life, Charlie felt the stirrings of acceptance, both from within himself and from the broader LGBTQIA+ community. And as he wiped away his tears, a newfound sense of empowerment filled him, propelling him forward on his journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance.