A Predictable Disaster, an Unexpected Miracle
Finding queer community — amidst heartbreak — in the most natural (and unlikely) of places.
I was supposed to be playing cricket for Harvard in the regionals tournament yesterday, and it didn’t really go to plan. I was excited for it — I have trained hard over the summer, acquired some nice cricket gear, and I was much more confident in my ability than I have been before. The Harvard team was the first team that accepted me as a trans person, and I enjoyed training with them. There were a few people who did not seem to accept me or perhaps did not know what to do with me, but I brushed past that. Microaggressions are pretty much par for the course in transgender life — or at least in my transgender life! I struggled hard to not be ‘one of the guys’ (and not be treated as such), and it triggered dysphoria that was challenging. I would have fun in the moment, and then cry on the way home. I was also driving a long enough way to Cambridge that it was a serious commitment just to even show up. Anyway, I was part of the regionals squad and I was excited to play in several games over the weekend. I got up at 4:30AM to pick up half of the team from around Cambridge and Allston, packed most of the team kit into the car, and even brought a Yeti cooler full of Powerade for them/us. While everyone else got Ubers, I drove for an hour early in the morning to some random place in…
