“I feel like my life is over. I feel like you are dying,” my mom repeatedly cried. I had read during my years of research online that my parents would likely feel this way. After all, I was telling them that someone they loved might soon look very different, and they must have felt as if the life they’d imagined for their child was in peril. I’d never find a partner. I’d never find a job. I’d never be welcomed back in our home state. “I’m still the same person with the same interests, intelligence, sense of humor, and the same smile,” I said, referencing my nearly constant trademark
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