You Be You Yet?

You Be You Yet?

You Be You Yet?

You Be You Yet?

The joys of being a woman are countless, more than many girls born into it might ever agree. For some, the ones who've been girls since the cradle, shopping can feel like a chore, a way to kill an afternoon with no real thrill to it. But for Gena, it's all thrill and frill. She even likes to quietly test the girls around her, to see whether they notice she isn't quite the same kind of girl. She wants them to be jealous as she is same as them in one way, but different in the other way.

In the early days, she tried to keep a low profile, to slip in and out so softly that no one would register she'd been there at all. But lately she's discovered something freeing: standing tall, standing bold, actually saves her from the awkward moments far better than shrinking ever did. Like the line from "Golden," no more hiding.

You Be You Yet?

You Be You Yet?

A few years ago, Gena discovered a small, unexpected joy: the simple pleasure of showing off her shoulder line. There's something about the soft curve of a trans woman's shoulders that draws people in, men and women alike, when it stays gentle and balanced enough to feel truly feminine. Gena loves the way her smooth, supple skin feels when it's bare beneath a strapless top, a little quiet thrill every time. Though out here in the Arizona sun, she's learned to be careful. That tender skin can burn before you know it.

And then there's her hair. The touch of it, the weight of it falling against her shoulders, is a joy she holds close as a girl. Smoothing it has become a sweet little ritual, something that has to happen before anything else can begin. Before she starts the car. Before she steps out of it. Before she walks through a door, even before she lifts the phone to make a call. She runs her fingers through it and feels that pure, uncomplicated happiness, the silky softness of her hair as dear to her as the warmth of her own skin.

You Be You Yet?

You Be You Yet?

It's been a heavy stretch lately, the kind of low that comes wrapped in nostalgia for who Gena used to be.

This is one of only a few surviving photos from the time when Gena was first exploring a new identity as a girl. It was taken in the elevator of the Crowne Plaza Jinan, in China. That evening, Gena was glowing with anticipation, about to meet a local girl who saw her, understood her, and appreciated Gena as the genuine girl she was.

The two of them spent that whole weekend together: cafés, restaurants, street food stalls, department stores, even the beauty shop. For a little while, the world felt soft and right.

Now, separated by so much distance and time, Gena has no way of knowing whether she's happy these days. Back then, she wasn't. Wherever she is, Gena hopes life has been kind to her.

You Be You Yet?

The Frozen Horizon: Anger in the Ice

Surrounded by the heavy snow, jagged ice, and freezing waters of the mountains, a deep-seated anger refuses to melt. Instead, a biting loneliness creeps back in, filling the quiet spaces of Gena's soul.

Standing with both hands tucked tightly into her pockets, she guards her own warmth. She is not ready to extend her hands to hold someone else’s, nor is she willing to lower her defenses. There is a fierce, private battle raging beneath the surface, completely detached from the quiet scenery around her.

The resentment she carries is rooted in a fundamental, unyielding reality. She is angry—at the cruel hand of fate that saw her born a man instead of a woman, at the painful sting of rejection from her love, and at the absolute finality of having to navigate her entire life carrying this profound weight. The Bitter Truth is that she is acutely aware that we are only given one single life to live. Yet, looking out at the frozen expanse, she deeply wishes she could simply throw it all away—to have an entirely new life, a clean slate, and start completely over.

"The ice around the lake might eventually thaw with the season, but the fury of being forced to fight for what should have been an accident of birth does not fade so easily."

You Be You Yet?

Ashes and Emeralds: A Lesson from Maligne Lake

Sitting on the edge of Maligne Lake in Jasper, Alberta, a profound sadness took hold. Looking out at the landscape from Jasper to here, the visible devastation left behind by the recent wildfires felt deeply heavy and depriving.

There was a striking, painful irony in the scene. A vast, deep body of water sat completely helpless, unable to put out the raging fires that had consumed the trees right at its shore. It felt like a cruel reflection of the heavens—an indifferent silence from forces that watched her identity crisis unfold without offering a hand to extinguish the pain.

But as her gaze drifted from the water to the scorched earth at the near by The Valley of Five Islands, her perspective shifted. Among the blackened, skeletal trunks, something incredible was happening: the healing had already begun. Vibrant green moss and fresh shoots of grass were stubbornly pushing their way through the ash.

Nature was rewriting its own ending. Life is not a linear tragedy; it is an unbroken circle. If the forest can begin again from utter destruction, then so can she. This realization brought a quiet wave of peace—a belief that if she is ever born into this world again, she will be born fully, genuinely, as the woman she was always meant to be.

"The fire didn't have the last word. Neither does the pain. Rebirth is slow, but it is absolute."

You Be You Yet?

The final day of a journey has a way of forcing a reckoning with oneself. On Gena's last day in Canada, the weather turned brutally windy, the sky clotting into a heavy, suffocating grey that threatened to pull her mood down with it. When the elements turn harsh, the internal armor she works so hard to maintain can start to feel heavy. She needed a sanctuary. She needed to exhale. She found it in a downtown Rosso coffeeshop, wrapping her hands around a hot Maple Latte.

As she took the first sip, a strange and beautiful shock washed over her. It tasted exactly like home. It was the precise flavor profile of the drink she loves making for herself on quiet mornings—her own home-brewed cold brew sweetened with pure Canadian maple syrup. In that crowded downtown shop, the sudden familiarity felt like a gentle anchor. In that moment, she sank back into a quiet wave of peace, letting her mind wander back to the grand landscapes she had just spent a week exploring.

The Perspective of Giants

Though the mountains were no longer visible through the windows of the downtown cafe, their presence loomed large in her mind. Her thoughts drifted back through her personal journey over the past 10 days, tracing the vast, ancient peaks of Jasper and Banff, Alberta. Looking back at those colossal mountains, the sheer scale of the wilderness she had traveled through put everything into perspective.

Reflecting on the immutable giants of Jasper and Banff that have stood for millennia, the daily, exhausting struggles of her life suddenly felt incredibly small. The lifelong pain she has carried—the exhaustion of fighting for her identity and navigating a turbulent world—is a heavy burden to bear day by day. But channeling the quiet endurance of the Alberta wilderness, she realized that the struggle is temporary. The pain is going to fade away anyhow.

"The mountains, falls and lakes of Banff and Jasper do not care about the labels, the noise, or the battles fought in the valleys below. They simply endure. And carrying their memory into the quiet sanctuary of the cafe, she realized that her storms will pass, her struggles will end, and the peace she is building will remain."

You Be You Yet?

You Be You Yet?

You Be You Yet?

Shopping day!

You Be You Yet?

You Be You Yet?

You Be You Yet?