To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest acomplishment
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Beep… Beep… Beep

‘What is that beeping?’ is the first thought that crosses my mind. That’s when I open my eyes. I’m in a white room, obviously a hospital. I start to sit up but I’m being held in place by various wires and tubes connected to the slew of medical hardware surrounding me. I start pulling everything out, there are alarms going off as a nurse rushes in, she starts screaming at me.
“Stop! Stop! Doctor Crusher, she’s awake!”
A young doctor of about 28 walks in at a brisk pace. My first thought is ‘wow he’s hot’, but the first thing I say is “WHAT THE FUCK ARE THESE!” as I grab the two foreign objects protruding from my chest.  

“What’s wrong with my voice, who are you people?”

“Nurse I need a 13cc dose of Cloterimitol!”  

I start hyperventilating, I’m freaking out. I’ve never been prone to panic attacks or anxiety but I was definitely having a panic attack now. I then feel a sharp pain in my arm and a warm sensation, Dr.Crusher is injecting me with something, everything is fading to black, the wail of the alarms now a distant noise, and I dream.  

A putrid smell fills my nose as I wake up, the nurse from earlier is standing next to me with a packet of smelling salts in her hand. As soon as my eyes are open I’m assaulted from all sides by my mother and father, hugging and kissing me. My mother is crying, for some reason I start crying too. Now I’ve never been one to cry, period, but I can’t control myself. It’s as if some switch was flipped and I can’t control my emotions.  

“Mom, w…What happened to me?”

“Well, sweetheart, it seems that you were struck by lightning and some chromosomal mutation happened and something about the sun, the doctor will explain." She gave me a halfhearted smile.

I looked up to see Dr.Crusher standing at the foot of my bed. As I’m staring at him I can’t help but think that he looks exactly like Will Wheaton, the actor, only a little bit older and with a slightly deeper voice.

“So the first thing I want to say is that what happened to you is not unheard of, extremely rare but not unheard of. You see, Nine minutes before you were struck by lightning a solar flare occurred blasting gamma radiation towards earth, normally the ozone layer and magnetic fields would deflect much of this radiation but due to CFC’s the ozone layer is thinning causing more radiation to leak through. There was a hole in the ozone layer directly above your house, the immense dose of gamma radiation you received mutated your DNA changing your Y chromosome to an X chromosome, your hair from brown to blonde, your eyes from brown to blue. Normally these changes would go unnoticed as they would not manifest themselves, but the fact that you are on the cusp of puberty and you were struck by lightning caused your body to go into over drive producing stem cells completely reshaping your body, we call this phenomenon CMR or Complete Mass Reconstruction. So any questions?”

“No” I lied, I had a ton of questions, but I just wanted to go home now. Then the doctor turned to my parents.

“Mister and Misses Patterson, the government has requested multiple blood and DNA samples from your… child, in exchange for $20,000 to aid in her um… transition to being of the fairer sex, basically to help pay for clothes, new furniture, makeup, etcetera".

“That’s fine” My dad didn’t seem to enthusiastic at the prospect of $20,000. Then in a stern voice he only used when correcting me he said “Doctor, could you please give our family a moment, a private moment?”

“Oh, of course, I’ll be in my office.” He said as he strolled out of the room . As soon as the door closed my dad went to open his mouth to say something but I shushed him, it was my turn to speak.
“Mom, Dad, you both know that I’m the kind of person who puts 150% into everything they do, a person who never gives up. It’s clear to me that I’m stuck this way, permanently, and I’m going to make the best of it. I am going to embrace being a… girl 150%, and if you look on the bright side this is like a fresh start, a mulligan on life.” I said with halfhearted enthusiasm.  
They stood next to my bed with a look of shock and confusion, that was obviously not what they expected to hear, but what they don’t know is that I’ve always wanted to be a girl, it was my secret, and it was the thing I could never achieve.

They sat down, probably to gather their thoughts. This gave me a chance to actually look around my hospital room. It was more like a suite complete with a couch, T.V., mini-fridge, microwave, bathroom, and EKG monitor (that beepy thing that monitors your heart). They had only sat down for a few seconds, my mom was the first to speak.

“Sweetie, your Father and I have always supported your decisions wholeheartedly.” Then my dad interjected.

“With that being said, we cannot agree with you more, we were so worried you were going to take this badly and slip into depression or worse…”

That’s when I started crying, again. My mom jumped up and pulled me into her arms, caressing my already shoulder length hair (my parents let me grow it out as it was still summer) as I cried into her shoulder, she smelled of perfume and coffee.my dad joined our hug and we stayed like that for some time.

I never told you what my parents looked like, so I’ll do that now stating with my mom. She is a fairly attractive woman in her early Thirties, about 5’4’, brown hair and eyes, very fit, and had an amazing sense of fashon(which will help me in the future). My father on the other hand was a six foot brick wall of a man with a 36in chest, flat top hair, moustache, and a very muscular body.

“Well you obviously can’t keep your name, do you have any idea on what you might want to be called, you don’t have to decide now.” Asked my dad in the middle of our family embrace.

”A...Actually I do, Ashley, Ashley Diane Patterson.” I said through tears.