I’m very excited today. After waiting a couple months, I was finally able to see the TED Talk that a friend in Los Angeles did back in April.
If you’re familiar with the retailer Suddenly Fem you’re probably familiar with CiCi’s blog. It has a very large audience.
CiCi and I go back quite a few years. We’ve only been together once in the flesh but we used to spend lots of time together in a trans chatroom, back in the days when I webcammed lots in that chatroom.
CiCi and I can argue all day long about who was an inspiration to whom, and we did a little of that today when I messaged her online to congratulate her on the wonderful job she did with the TED Talk.
Anyway, she’s always been special to me, and if you’ll take a few minutes to watch her TED Talk, you’ll understand why.
Yay CiCi!
Sometimes I feel so ignorant of the community that I dip my toes into! It seems that I think I understand, and I believe that I have awareness, and am fairly certain that I have a reasonable knowledge base. And then, I hear something like this, and feel very small. What others have done, have lived, and have endured is both mind-boggling and inspiring. CiCi has done a marvelous job of making all of this very simple…..”just understand that the hardest thing in the world to do….is to be yourself”. Simple truths stated succinctly….. have an incredibly powerful impact. I am very thankful I was able to view this talk, and hope that someday I will get to thank her in person…….
Dea, I really think she could take her ‘talk’ on the road. The attendees at all the big trans event might love to hear her speak, even though she’s very pretty. hehe Or maybe there’s a rule about that?
Hmm, yes the hardest thing to do is be yourself. Especially in our community that even I don’t truly fully comprehend but CiCi was right… if you own it, then you can be you. And it is interesting that my own awareness and self-acceptance came along because of the internet. She was right there was no community to find commonality and self-reassurance that you were not alone, that is until we all started coming online and looking for each other. We are all different, so the simple truth is we all have to own who we are. Such simple words, yet we make it so difficult. Let us hope in time that we can eventually own it … wherever our individual journeys take us.
Thanks for sharing, I learned something today
Glad you like this one Jaime. And thanks for having the courage to mention how difficult we, as a community, make it for ourselves.
Most blame the world for all of our challenges instead of acknowledging how difficult it is to “own it”.