Summary

Emma Holiday shares a personal perspective on finding and spreading joy as a transgender individual amidst life's challenges.

Abstract

In a heartfelt article, Emma Holiday emphasizes the importance of living with joy, particularly as a transgender person. Holiday advocates for a life filled with positivity, encouraging readers to embrace human warmth and simple pleasures, such as appreciating a blue sky or a sunset. The author criticizes the media's focus on negativity and the impact of hateful individuals, instead promoting acts of kindness and connection, like sharing a smile or helping the homeless. Holiday's message is clear: joy is accessible and can be multiplied through sharing, contrasting the often-bleak portrayal of the world in the news. The article serves as a reminder to focus on the beauty of life, the joy in everyday moments, and the importance of sharing happiness with others, especially those closest to us.

Opinions

The author believes that joy is abundant and can be found in the simplest forms of human connection and nature's beauty.
Holiday expresses frustration with the media's tendency to focus on negative news, suggesting a need for more balance.
The article conveys a strong opinion against those who spread negativity, comparing them to "diseased insects" and advocating for "anti-misery repellent."
Holiday suggests that personal acts of kindness, such as giving to the homeless or simply greeting strangers, can significantly increase collective joy.
The author emphasizes the therapeutic nature of writing and its role in processing personal experiences and gender dysphoria.
Holiday aims to reduce the loneliness felt by other transgender individuals by sharing personal thoughts and experiences.
There is a clear intention to educate cisgender readers, advocating for understanding, acceptance, and the recognition of transgender individuals as normal people deserving of respect.

Joy: Living My Trans Life With as Much as I Can Get.

and my transgender heart has plenty to share

https://unsplash.com/@heypresliehttps://unsplash.com/@heypreslie

I want to live my life with joy.

I really love sharing the joy of life with everyone who is willing to be joyous with me as well.

It doesn’t take much, just stop being miserable, stop looking for fault and just open yourself up to human warmth that is all around us.

I know that sounds ridiculously simple. Well, it actually is.

You won’t find this joy on the 6 o’clock news. I get annoyed that they always try and make me feel better in the last 5 minutes of the news hours after 55 minutes of global misery. We need more of a balance.

You won’t hear joy from the haters that seek to scatter unhappiness around them like diseased insects ready to suck that joy out of your soul. We need some anti-misery repellent.

There are so many private joys.

It could be just looking up at the blue sky and smiling as the clouds slide across the horizon. Watch a sunset or a sunrise and take in the awe and beauty of the moment. Take a deep breath knowing that many loved ones in our lives have lost the ability to do. Smile in their memory. Pick songs that make you happy.

Share that joy with strangers. Sharing has a multiplier effect. It can happen when you hold a door for someone or simply say “please” and “thank you”. Don’t walk past every homeless person. Give them a buck. Just nod at strangers in greeting as you pass, even say “good morning”.

Share your joy with those you care most about. Buy them a random cup of coffee. Make them chocolate chip cookies. Talk about happy times. Be happy in their company.

Look I know what I wrote sounds like a Hallmark card but maybe we need to back off the “end of the world”, “everyone is out to get us” and the general fear of living running on an endless treadmill and look for the merry-go-round. Enjoy the experience of living and don’t worry, there is plenty to make you miserable without too much effort if you want.

Me, I would rather play in the sprinkler.

Emma Holiday

Thank you for reading my work.

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Writers note: If you have read any of my writings on Medium you will have noticed a definite theme: the incredible pain of gender dysphoria and all the difficult aspects of just being transgender.

My writing has three specific goals:

1. Writing is my therapy. I have a very limited outlet for my thoughts so I write to find a way to process the most profound experience in my life. I need to understand and I need to accept myself to move forward.

2. Being transgender, for me, is a very lonely existence and if I can share some of the things that I feel and think as I go through the process of transitioning with others who are transgender and, in some way, lessen their pain and sense of loneliness, then all of this public exposure of my personal thoughts is not a waste.

3. I write to help cisgender people understand that all trans people want is to be simply understood, accepted and treated as a normal person. We are.