just some guy

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I believe this is my largest carving! I do feel it’s a little too busy so I may carve some background out and just leave my aminals bc I like how they turned out :P

So, if any trans men are being told about this, it’s not true!! Smoking will not change your voice, at least not until you’re about forty years down the line and you’ve already irreparably destroyed your lungs and throat and mouth and pretty much every other organ in your body. When you hear heavy smokers with deeper, scratchier voices it is literally because their vocal cords have been ruined. This is not a passive effect of smoking, it is a very very damaging one!

It’s simply not worth it! There will be no meaningful changes except terrible ones. Voice training will do a lot more for you than cigarettes will, I promise that the people urging you to start smoking as a voice training method do not have your best interests at heart!

(And you know what, this also goes for not eating due to the idea that starving yourself will decrease your chest size. Like with smoking, there will be no meaningful changes except terrible ones. Your body is worth so much more than that and there will always be healthier alternatives!)

i love you arson who uses they/them and doesn't want hrt and has wild, awesome, cool hair and loves leather and cardigans

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.

Absolutely not over! No one has their shit figured out in their 20s, and you may very well end up being a dozen different people before you are 30. (I myself had 2 major breakdowns during those years. I also made the decision to transition, too, which was one of the best things I could have done for myself.)

Sounds like you either haven't found something that captures your interest hobby or work-wise, or there is something you want to do, but inertia or something else is in the way.

I had a shitty job in my 20s, but work isn't something I truly regret from those years. If I had to do it all over again, I'd:

Make being active a regular part of my life -- being in nature, jogging, even some kind of sport

Get off the computer when it felt like a chore. A lot of my video games and web browsing were just time sinks and increasingly felt like some kind of weird job.

Experiment more with hobbies and not be afraid of being bad at something for a while. I wish I picked up sewing earlier, or another instrument, or spent more time drawing.

Overall, just enjoy what I *did* have, even with my limited income. I had local parks, books to read, free events to go to, board games to play with friends, and so many crafts to try.

Of course, I'd also transition earlier, ha ha. But that is also part of a bigger theme of prioritizing my happiness, not being afraid of being messy or weird, and doing small things I had access to in order to get to know myself better, and perhaps build some positive habits.

Teens and 20s kind of suck. You're gaining agency, but don't have the resources yet to jump ahead in life. That's going to take time, and one of the best things you can do right now is get out of your comfort zone and see where your curiosity takes you.

So, maybe see what's going on locally on your next free day. Go to a pride festival, or a farmer's market, an art show, a library sale, a community walk, etc. Have a little adventure of some sort to wake your brain and mood up.