May 16, 2022. A supermoon coincides with a lunar eclipse. It remains in totality for around 80 minutes, casting a deep orange over my childhood home. I’m standing next to my dad – step-father, technically – as we watch it. We talk about how amazing it is that we are able to see it from our tiny planet. How the universe is so vast and we are truly just dots within the totality of time. How we’re definitely not alone, but he doesn’t think aliens “give enough of a shit about this place” to really come check us out.<\/p>\n
At the time, I had yet to start hormone replacement therapy. I had an appointment scheduled, planned for a Zoom call in the living room of my own home. My mom wanted to be there, just to hear how the process went. As far as I knew, my dad didn’t know when I would be starting, but that I was going to. That night, he started talking about how long he had been in my life. How it was watching me grow up. How the world has changed so much during this minuscule frame of time.<\/p>\n
“I can’t say I understand it fully, but I hope you know I love you no matter what. I don’t care who you love or what you do, as long as you’re a good person. That’s all I ask.”<\/p>\n
The crickets were singing.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
May 16, 2022. A supermoon coincides with a lunar eclipse. It remains in totality for around 80 minutes, casting a deep orange over my childhood home. I’m standing next to my dad – step-father, technically – as we watch it. We talk about how amazing it is that we are able to see it from our tiny planet. How the universe is so vast and we are truly just dots within the totality of time. How we’re definitely not alone, … <\/p>\n