scrubjayspeaks

Recognizing that there isn't enough for you in that pile of concepts, attitudes, and behaviors that got picked out for you by someone who looked at your crotch and was Supposed To Know, and subsequently piled on by the people who raised you, to keep you rummaging through that pile looking for the few things that actually fit, is revelatory. And when you actually find the things that suit you, and stop caring what pile of other stuff you found them in, that's empowering.

That was when I first got the same kind of feeling many cis people get from their gender. Much better than other cis people who don't really fit their gender as well as they think, and tell you about their own pain by way of rationalizing yours.

Much like your reaction to "a hormone mix that suits you better", the gender you were led to believe was yours might have been more uncomfortable than outright painful -- kind of like clothes that you thought looked good, and were your colors and style, but were uncomfortable to wear and move in. But you wore them anyway because the rest of the stuff was worse. And now you've found a much more comfortable place. May your happiness at doing so continue to shine through.