What is the sound of one egg shell breaking?

All my life, I had been really good at hiding.

I had passed through elementary and junior high without drawing attention, and was looking to do the same in high school.

Until today, when everything changed.

My school decided to have a goofy version of mini-golf mixed in with extra challenges at each hole.

We were each assigned a group, and it didn’t take long for me to fall behind the others, as my golf skills could best be described as nill to negative.

But on the sixth hole is where my ability to hide died.

Besides the challenge of the hole itself, there was a bunch of donated clothes you could “bid” on depending on how you did on the hole.

I, of course, was last and had the least.

There was only one item left, an ankle length dress.

And since I had “won” the dress, the others encouraged me to put it on over my clothes.

I did, and I felt . . . alive. For the first time in my life.

And it scared me to death, so I took it off and ran to the next hole.

But one of my teachers noticed what had happened.

She tried to hand me the dress, but I kept saying, “I can’t, I can’t”

So she just held me and I let out the truth that had been hiding inside me for years - that I was really a girl, forced to pretend she was a boy.

And how I couldn’t see how that would ever change.

Then she did something amazing - she promised me it could change. It would change. If I was brave enough to make it change.

“I’m not brave enough.” I told her.

“Then let me be brave for you, for now, until you find your courage.” She replied.

And she kept her word.

End