Special

One of my regular reads on the internet is the comic strip “What Normal Anyway?” and the current comic strip is “Special” and the last panel struck a chord with me, in it he wrote,

“I guess there are perks to being special, even if it makes me ‘special’”

I find that so true. I walked into the car dealership to have me car serviced and I’m greeted by name, “Good morning Diana.” There are so many other times that people have remembered me; one time I was at the True Colors conference sitting with an acquaintance and all these people were walking by saying “Hi” to me and the person commented that I sure know a lot of people. I said that I had no idea who they were; I said “Everyone remembers the six foot tranny.”

Another time I was standing in line for our reservations at a popular local restaurant and a woman came up to me and thanked me. It turned out that I spoke in a class she was in and now she had a trans-client and she said that because of that class that day she knew how to work with the client.

Of course being treated special is not always a good thing; you get called on more in class and you all of a sudden become the ambassador for the trans-community. You might be the first and only trans-person they meet so I am always on my best behavior. Thursday I giving a presentation to counselors and therapists and I want to look my best so I’m going out to but new shoes and clothes.

So there are perks but there are also drawbacks to being “special.”