you will get hair in fun new places. this is normal and fine.

these places include (but are not limited to) if you don't already have them: your asscrack, your back, your ears, and moles. it's fine.

some of you, dick or not, will also lose hair. this is normal, but also if you have ovaries maybe get this checked out for PCOS.

your acne will probably change. some people get better. some people get worse. it's fine.

your nails will probably get an infection or a fungus at least once in your life. this is fine. (but also let your doc know).

how you gain and lose fat and where you do so will change. this is fine.

how you smell will change. this is fine. (fishy or rotten smells mean doctor time though)

if you have a prostate: it gets harder to pee. prostates enlarge as you age (get this checked regularly). this is fine.

if you do not have a prostate: it gets easier to pee but not in a good way. as in as you get older, your pelvic floor muscles tend to lose some of their strength. this makes it harder to keep pee in. this is fine.

all breasts and pectorals eventually sag, with the rest of your body. this is fine.

a decent percent of the population will experience a cyst at least once. some of you will make up for the rest with multiple. this is fine, but keep them checked out by a doctor. (sometimes this is a condition! get checked for that too!)

almost half of everyone gets hemorrhoids. it's a good idea to just expect them since your chances of getting them get higher the older you are. your toilet will look like a murder scene. definitely get your booty checked out BUT this is almost always perfectly normal. just eat more fiber. "but I already-" eat more fiber. and maybe suck it up and buy some hemorrhoid cream, you'll thank me later.

yes, this means you will probably need to make an appointment for a doctor to see your butthole. it's okay. not only do they really not care but 1. they've seen weirder that day and 2. they'd far rather you see them now than later when it's been going on for forty years and now it might be colon cancer. it's okay. consider it a rite of passage.

adults need more sleep than children. don't believe the myth that you need less than they do. that is capitalist propaganda to make you give up more of your life to the work grind, comrade.

vitamins and medicine, something you are more likely to take as you get older, sometimes make the toilet turn weird colors. it's okay.

if you still have your tonsils and get those little stones and get sore throats more than once a year you should plan on getting those suckers out before the tonsils cause an infection and go septic. if you're getting stones at all you should get those reevaluated every year, especially if the stones are bigger than a needlehead (or get bigger over time). it's gross and yucky. I don't care. get them looked at before you end up in the hospital.

you'll probably need to add foot support to your shoes if you don't already do. this is fine.

your body changes. sometimes it can feel sorta weird and upsetting that it isn't what it used to be. that is okay, and it is okay to be upset. just know that this is normal, it's normal to be upset or not upset, but don't let it hinder your quality of life. trans or cis, there is a certain level of acceptance you just gotta give your body and forgive your body for as you get older. it's okay.

When you're in your room for 12 out of 24 hours of the day and only 7 of those hours are spent sleeping, your brain can get confused. It stops thinking of your bed as "a place to sleep", and stops consistently making you tired when you go to bed because it thinks the bed is a neutral place instead of a place you go to specifically for sleeping. My best advice based on personal experience:

1- start doing things like reading or being on your phone in a different room, or even just in a chair next to your bed instead of ON your bed.

2- exercising before bed will not "tire you out" in any sort of helpful way if you have insomnia. You'll either be kept awake by adrenaline and dopamine or you'll pass out and wake up even more exhausted and sore the next day.

3- routines go a long way. It can even be something fun, like making a cup of a warm drink. Though make sure it's not caffeinated (unless you're like me and caffeine doesn't do anything to you because of your weird ass brain). It can also be something productive, like laundry or dishes, though again, exercise is not the move. You want to be winding down, not forcing your body into unconsciousness, because that never really works long term.

4- laying in bed for longer than 20 minutes trying to sleep will only make everything worse. Try not to watch the clock, but if you know it's been a while since you started trying to sleep and you're still awake, get up and go do a neutral/passive activity in dim or low/warm lighting in ANOTHER ROOM— preferably not something that involves your phone or a tv.

5- accept that your sleep schedule will not always be perfect, especially if you are neurodivergent or have struggled with insomnia for a long time. You will have days where your mind just won't settle down, and maybe they'll be few and far between, but they'll be there. But if you know what works best for you, it will always be easier than it was last time to pick yourself back up again.

This was all based heavily on personal experience, so if anything I said is wrong or misleading, feel free to let me know. But these tips are what got me sleeping regularly again every time my sleep cycle got fucked up.

Rental property #1 pays for our vacations.

Rental property #2 pays for our mortgage.

Rental property #3 pays for our groceries.

Rental property #4 pays for vehicles and so on.

Have assets pay for your liabilities. It’s a cheat code to a stress free life.

End orginal tweet. The red marked up new tweet reads:

Tenant #1 pays for our vacations.

Tenant #2 pays for our mortgage.

Tenant #3 pays for our groceries.

Tenant #4 pays for vehicles and so on.

Have other people pay for your living costs.

However. Often when getting food after marching practice, or on our scant breaks, I’d drive my friends to burger king or little ceasers or starbucks or whatever, and sometimes not all of my friends could afford the food they wanted. And well…food is food. I have a big appetite, and as long as I didn’t go crazy overboard and order catering for the whole band, a few extra burgers and shakes wouldn’t stand out on a monthly bill. So I bought my friends food. 

I did this for several months, and sometime during that came out to my parents. They both thought it was a phase, and that I would grow out of it. Since they’re not terrible people their approach to me having ‘a boy phase’ was to let me do my thing and wait for me to change my mind. I didn’t change my mind, and eventually they understood that, but that’s a whole other post. The point is my dad didn’t discourage me from transitioning, but avoided talking about it with me. He stopped calling me his daughter, but replaced it with child rather than son, that kind of thing.  

But back to the credit card. Eventually I started feeling guilty. TECHNICALLY I was obeying the rule ‘food and gas only’, but I knew I was bending it. I nervously admitted to him one day that sometimes…on occasion…once in a while… I’d buy a friend food. I waited solemnly for his judgement. He walked over to me, put his hands on my shoulders, looked into my eyes sternly and said,

“Zackary, we are Italian. If you let your friends go hungry….” (and here he decided to shake me just for a little emphasis) “I will disown you.”