Thirty minutes after I graduated from High School the bitter truth of life sank in as my parents told me that I either had to join the military or move out. This was sprung fifteen minutes after pictures were taken with friends and teachers, while the thoughts of what I had planned to do with my life were just a gleam in my eye, this was sprung on me.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAPUxhz91BM

Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, mid-May, 2016…

A dream is a wish your heart makes
When you're fast asleep
In dreams you will lose your heartaches
Whatever you wish for, you keep

Almost alone in the midst of friends, the girl was lost in thought over the lingering hurt that eventually drove her to re-enlist.. She breathed in deeply and decided to join in the banter with her platoon.

“Got any plans?” Of course they all had plans of a sort; futures that most of them planned that included new places and new opportunities. And maybe new dreams; or rather new ways of realizing old, almost discarded dreams?

“I am fairly confident that my future will not include anything remotely khaki or camo,” she said.

“In fact, I’m…” She had meant to say ‘pewter’ and ‘copper’, and ‘jade,’ but her thoughts as well as the thoughts of everyone else were interrupted suddenly and severely...

Totally shocked and devastated by the news that my body was intersex, I moped around in my own grey miserable world for the rest of the day, wandering the streets, stopping for coffees, watching the ducks and geese on the lake in the park, generally hiding away, before I had got myself together enough to face people again.