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Appreciation

Before meeting my unofficial sister I wasn’t in the best place mentally. I had extremely

low self-esteem, barely had any idea about my anxiety in social situations, and I didn’t know

who I was. Maybe I did know who I was but I was too afraid to accept myself. I allowed the

standards of society to close my mind instead of allowing myself to be open and open-minded

towards others and myself. If I have never met Ren I’d still be waiting for the time to come for

me to accept myself, my self-esteem would’ve stayed the same or lowered, and I still wouldn’t

understand what was happening when my anxiety started to kick in. There's even a good chance I

would’ve attempted suicide with how poor of a mental state I had and how little I cared about

myself. I couldn’t even find a way to socialize and make friends until my sister came into my

life. She just has an accepting and approachable vibe that makes it hard not to open up.

Ren is the most unique yet relatable person I’ve met. Ren is a very resilient person

who isn’t afraid to be herself. Ren does whatever Ren wants to do and there's no controlling that

which is a thing I admire about her. Ren is the person that showed me that it's okay to open your

mind and not follow the standards of society. Ren is a person of many talents and a data bank of

knowledge for things I rarely or don’t even think about. Ren is definitely a soul that has been

broken again and again, but for every wound comes a scar which then acts like protective armor.

Ren’s resilience is so great and powerful Ren doesn’t even realize how much has happened and

how far she has come.

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Ren has done more for me than I’ll even be able to comprehend. Through our 5 years of

knowing each other and becoming such a strong role in each other’s lives, it would be impossible

to not gain something. Ren not only isn’t afraid of being herself, but Ren also encourages others

to be their true selves as well. Ren being so accepting and encouraging helped give me some

confidence into accepting myself for who I am, and, showing my true self every day without

worrying about the way other people will think about me.

When Ren met me, I didn’t know who I was. Now I know that I am Caiden, a proud trans

man. I was in middle school when I first heard about trans men so prior to that I had no

knowledge of them even existing. It took me a year to think about and mentally evaluate my life

situation. I didn’t feel safe talking about stuff like that with my biological family but, I had no

issue talking to Ren about it. There’s nothing wrong with my family by blood, I just don’t talk

about that stuff with them and they’ve never shared their views with me on the subject before.

Ren was so accepting, supportive, and easy to confide in and she still is. It's also good to get an

evaluation from eyes outside of your own because sometimes it's the people around you that

know you more than yourself. Gaining the knowledge of who am is a priceless gift I found in

my journey through life and I wouldn’t have even been on that path if I hadn’t met Ren. Just

knowing that I will always have someone I could go to no matter what is just as comforting as

knowing who I am. I know Ren will be there for me whether it's because we just haven’t hung

out in or while or if I have some problems mental or physical or both.

My life today isn’t at it's best but I'm happy with where it’s at and where it's going. My

life has been on the upswing ever since Ren has come into my life. Our siblingship is us picking

the other one up, even if the other has fallen all the way to the bottom, and making sure we both
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stay up. The future scares me but knowing that Ren will still be in my life gives me a safe space

to go back to when getting overwhelmed with what the future may hold for me. Even though we

both want very different career paths we will still be there for each other and help each other out

in any way we can. Our future will function like how our present functions with us lifting each

other up. Giving each other advice, being someone who will listen, being a shoulder for the other

to cry on, and being brother and sister will only give us a stronger bond as time goes on and, is

something that will never change.