I was like PDPPartner ( still am at the age of 63)....I was the tom boy. I grew up in a neighborhood of mostly guys & I always played with them, street baseball, football, climbing fences. I hated playing with the girls & playing dolls....I though it was horribly boring. I always needed action.

I got married, had our daughter & was out backpacking when she was only 6 months old with her in a front pack & a 40 lb backpack.....at only 105lbs myself & 5'2", I just had too much energy to just sit around through I ended up in a computer design engineering career, I always played racquettball with all the guys at work & participated in all the tournaments, usually taking a high place in the tournament. I really didn't like playing racquettball with women either because then never put their heart into it & really played hard like the guys....they just weren't enough of a challenge. I would rather ride horses than housework. I hated fingernail polish on my fingers or toes...I felt like it was smothering my fingers & I hated makeup. It was never practical to wear. It would only smear when I was sweating playing racquettball & I didn't have time to put it on anyway because I was always in a rush to get back to work. Would rather do things than waste time with makeup that in reality had no redeeming value & basically anything that I have to continually do over again on a daily basis is a WASTE of time.

I have come to the conclusion that in reality, we have to find who we are & be confident in WHO that is.

LOL....I can clean up & wear a dress to nice places I go to & I enjoy that. I live on a farm now that I left my H & have basically retired though I'm on disability at this point in time. We always laugh because many of us live on farms & do lots of farm work & we look pretty grungy when we run into town to run an errand.....but then we go to a social event & we always kid each other at how well "we clean up".

I have a harder time relating to my more femine friends who won't go out of the house without makeup on because most of my friends are JUST LIKE ME......but I do have those friends also & they are wonderful too & they accept me JUST AS I AM.

I have found honestly that the most important thing is being able to communicate easily with people & being REAL. Thinking back, I realize just how superficial my life had been for so many years because of the people who were in my life. I left that life 9 years ago & am now realizing just what it is to be able to feel free to communicate with people & to be able to not be afraid to say something for fear it was wrong or that they wouldn't understand you in the first place because that was how the people I lived around all my life were.

I have never felt more comfortable in ALL my life, not have I felt more myself than I do now finally. It's taken a few years to get used to ME & figure out who ME is....but it's really awesome.

LOL...in my engineering career, working with all men, we had meetings with our military customers & they always told the guys they had to wear suit & tie. Well, not wanting to be different, I bought a really nice corderoy woman's suit & I found a wonderful pearl tie. I could give the masculine look a feminine touch which was basically always my style. Very seldom do I ever wear dresses, but I do every once in awhile & that's ok too.....but I do everything within my own style.

I never believed that I had to be like anyone told me. I was always sort of a rebel anyway in my own subtle way....people would just make a comment & I would take it just as that....a comment, not a demand that I needed to follow the comment.....I would just go ahead & continue to do things MY way........feeling much more comfortable with my way at 63 than I did before. That was sort of when I felt it necessary to make a statement....now I'm past that stage in life.