@dee Just my €0.02 from own experience: the moment I accepted myself and became my real self, people around me noticed that I was calmer, more kind, more loving. And they seem to have really liked it.
My professional environment got more stable, I developed new friendships, deeper relationships even with people whom I had known 20+ years by then.
My working theory is that we humans have an antenna for whether someone is -what I call- "a true person", or whether they are "a fake person". Most of my life, I played a role and I think people felt that I wasn't "a true person", that there was something "weird" with me.
#When my egg cracked and I started transitioning, the first year was hard. After about 18 months I took a trip, alone, just spending days on slow trains, with nowhere special as destination - I called it a "trainabout" (ref Walkabout) and thought about myself, my life, who I am and who I used to play. And one night, while I was lying naked in bed in a hotel in a small town somewhere at nowhere, I realized "this is me, this is finally me, and I LOVE it". That was the moment things changed - a lot. And since then, I have gained the most wonderful friends, met lovely people, my job situation got way better.
My client(s) know that when I promise, I deliver and now, finally, I am also "a nice and true person" to work with.
Nothing in the above is to mean to convince you one way or other - take it as a data point while you think about your future. If it helps, use it, otherwise just ignore it.
BTW: my egg cracked when I was 52, I started transitioning three months later, and am now ending my 3rd year of transitioning.
In any case, love and hugs, dear sibling, tons of love and hugs
