[297/375] I'm fine I'm fine just understand

[cosmolinguist]

My name is [scribble] Stevenson
I go by he/him mostly these days

ND Stevenson has a quiet little comic (that link is to the first one). I stumbled across it the other day and I really love it.

I've burned apart and grown again so many times
I'm better for it
but there are some things
that never grow back
I'm transitioning. I'm in transition.
I've learned that part of this job is sweeping up after the party

In another comic, I find spooky parallels.

My parents named me Noelle...It's French. I am not French.

It's my middle name that's French, and I absolutely detest it. Holly may not be a deadname for me but I had that kind of repulsion from my middle name long before I had any genderfeels. Oddly, it's not Holly that I get from my Christmasy birthday like this person got his given name, it's my middle name that's attached to my birthday. But I can sympathize with everything this person's saying about how miserable it is having a name like this at Christmas. He talks about trying new names and says something else I can relate to:

Sometimes I want a Cool Name
You know like Jasper, Nyx, Indy, Silver, Blaze
But at the end of the day I don't really feel like a person with a Cool Name.

I still think about how much I love the name Cosmo, still smile when I see it, but I am also not a person with a Cool Name. Thanks for everyone who helped me try that out, it didn't work but I'd never have known that if not for you.

I hope he finds a name that makes him happy, I sure did.

Comments

[white_hart]

Thank you for the link - that's lovely.

[otter]

I will share this with Tiger and Mouse.

[lilysea]

I hope his transition brings him much joy and gender euphoria ^_^

I wonder if he'll like

Ned Stevenson

Nick Stevenson

Nathan Stevenson

Nate Stevenson

[ljwrites]

It's so important to have that space to explore and try different things! It would be exhausting to feel like one has to have it all figured out in one go.

[radiantfracture]

But at the end of the day I don't really feel like a person with a Cool Name.

Ha, same

[barakta]

I hope Stevenson finds a name that suits him and becomes his own.

I am so pleased you had supportive spaces to explore things like Cosmo which didn't turn out to be the one and find a name that fitted better.

I always hated my old middle name, when I changed my forename by stat dec, I nuked the middle name entirely and have been much happier for it. It is so nice when people say "oh, no middle name" I get to say "nope!"... I think I had the confidence to change my forename as legally as one does in the UK (there's no such thing as legal name in theory here, but in practice you need stat dec or deed poll Cos Bureaucracies) cos I knew so many trans people who had changed theirs. I had been using Natalya as a name for years before I changed it - did it in time for the degree certificate.

Also, ob NoSurprise that the creator of Steven Universe is trans/queer of some kind given the fans of it say how much gender fucking and trans and queerness are in it. I never got into it but it is good to know it is out there being a change from the usual cishet-male-centric binary gendered crap that everything else is. I wonder how much of writing the Steven Universe was a form of exploration for Stevenson... Almost certainly.

[silveradept]

(Practical matter: I hadn't known that ND was a creator of Steven Universe. I'm used to it being R. Sugar on the creator line for that one.)

Names are tricky and weird. I seem to be one of those people who has two that I can answer to equally well. That comes in really handy when someone else in your household has one of your names, and it's much easier to cede that namespace to them and use the other one, so that there's no confusion or collision when someone is trying to address me.

I might be a person with a Cool Name, but it's the one I use as a backup in case someone else needs the first one for themselves.

It's been interesting watching ND's transitions from the sidelines and through comics like those ones. I really like his style and choice of topics. They resonate, even if they're not something that I have experienced or will experience. Thank you for showing me the place where they get collected.

[cosmolinguist]

Nope, you know what, I think it's me who remembered that wrong, never mind!

[silveradept]

It's an easy connection to make, though - AJ Michalka voiced both Stevonnie and Catra, and both shows do a lot for expanding the available storytelling space for non-het romance, and they're both popular and good.

[sfred]

<3

I'm so lucky for your generosity

[jesse_the_k]

....TIL about ND Stevenson's transition as well as his excellent comics.