#HelloMyNameWas is part of Bodhi Life: A Transgender New Media Artist’s Digital Memoir.
As a Transgender person, I was taught that I should have shame about my history; I shouldn’t tell anyone my birth name and I should appear as though I have had the same gender experience my entire life. I had gone so far in upholding these ideas, in perpetuating my feeling of shame, as to digitally alter past photos of myself to flatten my chest and shorten my hair. Half of my life I have been out as Transgender and living in a way where I feel more comfortable in my own skin, but this expression does not negate the first half of my life. I have a right to be proud of my entire existence. Bodhi Life is about having ownership over my whole life and all of my experiences and to encourage others to do the same.