I've been careful in how I think about my transness, and coming out and coming to terms with that. Because it's far too easy to say I have regrets.

I'm super excited when I see people figuring out that they're trans in their teenage years, or earlier. I think that's the best thing ever. I didn't have the language or understanding of what that could have meant for me when I was in grade school.

When I was in fifth grade, it was the height of the AIDS crisis, and the language on the playground was just so horribly homophobic and anti-gay -- I cringe at what we just said amongst ourselves.

Now, I'm just blown away that people now have the language and understanding, and there's a way to go forward. For those of us who didn't, it took a lot longer.

I have two young children and when I told them that I was trans, my daughter was like, "Oh, cool!" because she already had some friends who are trans and nonbinary, who are like 13.

If I could travel back in time, I’d tell my younger self to just own it.

I can't regret anything. I'm doing what I need to do. I'm doing it now on the path I needed to.

I followed the path that made sense for me. It wasn't as fast as I might have liked it to be. But I can't see how I would be able to do anything differently.

I had to work through the problems to get to where I am. I did a lot of thinking when I was paddling. It was boring sometimes – when it's flat and you’re paddling, two or three miles to the next rapid – you're not talking to your friends, because you're working.

My mind would go clear: "Yeah, I'm actually trans. I don't know how I'm going to tell anybody this.”

This was without me getting angry at myself, it just bubbled in there, because my head was finally clear.

[As told to @Ragi Gupta — continued tomorrow]