Calendar Week 5

Starting this week, I think I want to try and write a little update every week. Not necessarily long, but just something to keep trace of what I’m going through, and to stay focused on my goals.

This past week, I wanted to rest at the beginning of the week, and I did. I saw some friends and went to the movies: Mean Girls on Sunday, L’anatomie d’une chute on Wednesday and Perfect Days on Thursday. All those experiences were absolutely wonderful.

On Friday, I started again working on the public version of the text I had written about my name change for friends. It took me many weeks to write the original text (maybe 9 weeks?). My estimation is that it took me 15 hours for the French version, 10 hours for the German version and 8 hours for the English version. It then took me at least 15 hours to send it to all my contacts. Needless to say, I was relieved when it was finally over! So why continue with the public version? I don’t know, I think I’m enjoying the writing process and I enjoy having a project that is substantial but still doable. Having to be an activist, even though it’s clearly a chore, also gives me meaning and a place to channel my energy towards.

I could write in much detail how much time it took me until now to draft the public version and how much I estimate it will still take me, but those are uninteresting details. I just hope I can publish it soon. I decided to shorten the text by taking away some details that I then want to publish as “addendums” on a separate blog. So the main text would be on enby.mxtulip.dance, and those added articles on something like mxtulip.blog or blog.mxtulip.dance. I had already written out a few drafts on Friday, and added one more today. When will I have the time to write all this? We will see. For now, it is exciting and not daunting — and I hope it will stay that way, at least for a while.

This weekend I saw my friends from Lausanne, which was extremely precious. I’m leaving tomorrow with at least 5 new book recommendations, and a few podcasts that moved me deeply. For French speakers: Amour vs Amitié : Doit-on choisir ? avec Sam @appelle.moi.sam by Pédagojouie and Rompre les ponts avec la famille by Le Podkatz. Those were a good reminder to stay true to who you are. It is too easy to forget, I find. Too easy to adapt slowly but surely, until you look around one day and only recognise half your environment. I hope this weekly check-in, if I keep it going, will be a way to stay aware and connected to myself.

I had a wonderful week, and I hope you too. I will now read a beautiful graphic novel and hopefully fall asleep quickly. Tomorrow, new worlds await me :)