I guess it's fair to say I'm a creature of personal desire. And while that may be true, I also recognize that without the unique circumstances associated with my upbringing, there is little chance I'd be who I've become.
My parents both worked for a large hedge fund and were killed during the World Trade Center collapse in 2001. I was only one year old at the time and too young to understand what had happened. I still have some fuzzy memories of my parents, but nothing I can really recall in detail.
I was adopted by my Aunt Jessie who lived North of Tampa and worked as a marketing director for the Bucs. She was my Mom's only sibling and was the free spirit of the family, living with her life partner, who I came to know as Aunt Deb. Both of them were amazingly loving, and nurturing. All their friends were part of the LGBT community and I had no idea that my "family" was unique until I started school and discovered that most kids had what some would refer to as more traditional families.
To me though, I never would have wanted things any other way. They were always taking me on some new adventure, and I got to see life through their eyes all the beauty it had to offer.
I also grew up totally comfortable with the human body and didn't see it as anything to be covered or embarrassed about. We had a large backyard and pool and both my Aunts shunned the need for swimwear and were active naturists. I can honestly say I've spent more time naked than clothed.
I think I was probably fourteen before I realized my body wasn't developing the way other boy's bodies were. I had always been skinny, with narrow shoulders and finer features than my friends, but my voice still hadn't broken, nor had I developed any hair on my body. I talked to Aunt Jessie about this and she took me to a close friend of hers who was a doctor to run some tests.
The initial physical exam didn't turn up anything out of the ordinary. I was actually very well "developed" in the manhood area, although he noted my balls and scrotum were smaller than normal. The lab tests though revealed a very low testosterone level in my system.
The doctor said he could prescribe testosterone treatments that should bring on a normal puberty phase for me. I told him I'd like to think about it and talk with my Aunts some before making a decision.
Over dinner that night, I told my Aunts I liked who I was and how I looked and didn't think I wanted to go through the treatment. They said it was totally my choice and the only thing that mattered was me being who I wanted to be. I explained that if I was totally honest, I actually preferred being more female.
I told them I had much more in common with women than men and the idea of having a muscular body with lots of body hair totally turned me off. They suggested that it might be a good idea to go through some counseling to fully understand my feeling and desires, which I agreed to do.
Over the course of the next six months, I was able to confirm my preference for living as a female, although my sexual orientation was very much up in the air. That said, the idea of going through a full sex change operation didn't appeal to me either. I decided on my own unique path, with my Aunts fully embraced.
With my exceedingly low testosterone level, my voice never really dropped and my body retained it's slighter frame. I let my hair grow out and my Aunts helped me learn to do my hair and makeup and helped me choose a female wardrobe. They also began home schooling me so I could make the transition without dealing with all the social challenges of doing it publicly while in school.
By the time I was sixteen, I had been living as a girl for over a year and a half. I could go out with my Aunts and their friends and be totally confident of being accepted as their niece, and a very attractive one at that. I was completely flat chested, but wore a bra with inserts that gave me modest, but acceptable looking breasts.
Everyone fully accepted me being trans and I think my Aunts assumed that eventually, I would make a decision to fully transition once I was ready. Other ideas were developing in my head though.