2014: Year in Review

2014 unlike previous years was a year full of a mixed bag. This year has not only been a big one for me both physically and mentally but also emotionally and personally.

The year itself saw changes to my life that I have been planning for some time while others came unexpected and without warning.

With that said, let's recap the year that was.

Cecilia Comes Full Circle

For the last couple of years, I have had a female side known as Cecilia. During the last twelve months the journey to become a female through my "Pathways" project took a turn for the better.

On the 2nd April I officially came out as a male to female transgender. It wasn't the most easist of decisions to make due to a fear of my parents retailiating and the possibility of being banished and thrown out of the family. I've always had this feeling of being in the wrong gender, so to finally get this off my chest was a huge relief.

The next year for me will be all about slowly phasing in Cecilia into everyday life and also changing my clothing preferences and style to match. There will be still some restrictions due to being under the parents roof, but I am planning to finally live the life I want to live.

As always, here is a selection of Cecilia throughout the last 12 months:

Three Years as a Brony

2014 marked my third year in the brony fandom and the majority of the year was focused around the fourth season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I watched the entire season live as it aired, even it meant having to stay up until 2:00 in the morning (later 1:00 and midnight) or having to stay in one spot trying to watch the "Bats" episode on my phone due to the Optus network being overloaded while in Queensland.

This year also saw new additions to the merch collection including five new pony plushies and a complete set of Equestria Girls dolls.

With every positive bit of news also comes with a huge negative. I planned to attend my first brony convention this year but was stopped by my parents a few months before the event. Luckily the event was cancelled, but I couldn't also attend the spinoff events and pretty much blew my chance to meet one of the character voice actors in person.

I never mentioned about this in the public eye before but I suffered a huge bout of depression when the spinoff events happened and pretty much spent the entire weekend lying on the bed and in tears. No joke. I still even get those feelings today when I read over the posts I made.

Goodbye Grandma (Bernie)

I thought I save this bit for last as this is the most difficult subject to talk about.

In January of this year I lost a very close family member in the form of my grandma who suddenly passed away from a lengthy and unexpected illness and marked the third death in the family in five years.

In Conclusion

As I mentioned at the start of this post, 2014 was a year that delivered a mixed bag. Overall this year was a 50/50 for me for many reasons but the positives outweighed the negatives in terms on how my year was.

2015 is shaping up to be a year full of change and exciting opportunites including working on my moving out plans a little more and to also take the next step into my transition journey.

I want to thank you for all your support throughout 2014 and wish you the best in 2015.  

Happy New Year!