childhood

It's funny how girls like us grow up nearly identically. Although we grow up not knowing each other or having any idea the other existed, we can have almost the same experiences, feelings, trials and tribulations.
We can know around 5 years old or so, that we were a little different. That, in my case, I wanted to be more like my sister or Mom than my Dad. Girls like me probably even started wearing clothes or playing with toys of the opposite sex around this time.
Fast forward 8 or so years and the experiences are still lining up.The revelation that there was a name to go with these feelings and along with that name comes the joy at finding out there is a way to "fix" these feelings and become one person again.
Let me tell you about some of my childhood, this story will sound like countless others, so bear with me:
My childhood sounds as normal as any other Navy Brat. I went to 4 different grade schools, 4 different high schools and was held back from 2nd to 3rd grade.
Being a Navy Brat made my childhood unusual, but not abnormal. It didn't change who I was or how I felt.
As a young boy and teenager, I was one endless train wreck. What boy isn't right? There was detention, ADHD, drinking, drugs, speeding, stealing, vandalism, these are the ones I can remember. So far, so good. I survived, right? The bright spots were drama club and Aviation mechanics vo-tech at high school. Without those two courses, I probably would not have made it out of the 12th grade alive.
What was different? You cannot imagine how unhappy I was. How miserable. There were many months in my last two years of high school when I spent far too much time thinking how to end the pain.
I developed late and was crushed, absolutely devastated when I started getting chest hair. I had hoped that puberty had passed me by.
I had a couple of guy friends, and one or two friends who were girls but never girlfriends. I went to the Prom alone. Pathetic. Do you know why? So I could look at the girls in their dresses and dream.
The boys wanted to do things that I had no interest in doing, and the girls had no interest in doing things with a person like me.
My first girlfriend was when I was in the Army and about 21. She treated me like badly. I knew this and was aware of what was going on. The problem as I saw it was that she was my ticket to show the Army that I was heterosexual or not gay. I felt like a fool for having and enduring a girlfriend that could not stay loyal. This was mostly because of the social impact that I felt from the other guys. I enjoyed being around her, any girl really
 I had one other girlfriend after that before I met my wife.
I wish that I had stopped my dating before my wife. The pain and disappointment would not affect as many people.