Here's a thought:
Merriam-Webster Online defines transition as follows:
Main Entry: tran·si·tion
Pronunciation: tran(t)-'si-sh&n, tran-'zi-, chiefly British tran(t)-'si-zh&n
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin transition-, transitio, from transire
1 a : passage from one state, stage, subject, or place to another : CHANGE b : a movement, development, or evolution from one form, stage, or style to another
Perhaps a better term for what we (some of us) undergo is not so much a transition, but a becoming.
I see myself now as not having changed from when I was a confused child trying to make sense of the feeling I was having. I inhabit the same body, I have the same mind - and by and large, I have the same feelings as I did then. The difference is not a change of state, stage, or subject - it is not a development or evolution of form.
What I have done is allowed myself to become that which I always was but resisted. Perhaps, to the world at large, it seems that I have changed - but what have I actually changed about myself? As I said, the thoughts and feelings are all still there - only now, I acknowledge and accept them as an integral part of who I am. I have stopped fighting against myself - resisting that which I am.
It's not unlike the clearing of a dam. Suddenly, there is now a river where there once was none. But the river was always there - held back, suppressed - kept from being what it is. With the dam removed, the water and land merge - they become the river they were meant to be.
I haven't transitioned to something new...
I have become what I was always meant to be.
Love & Stuff,
Donna