Welcome to my story.

I would like to start by introducing myself. My name is Kenn. I am a 24 year old Native American.
I have found it hard to function in the world we live in today. I consider myself "two-spirited". For me, that means that I possess literally two spirits, one of masculinity, and the other of femininity, which is the most dominant. That is where the difficulty arises. In my own personal world, I work as an IT Engineer, surrounded by mostly male peers. On the other side of the coin, I share my life with my beautiful wife, and a supportive community nearby. With that being said, the problem is the difficulty of balancing the two lives. In the IT word, professionalism is key. This means, dressing well, and blending in with the status quo.

In today's world, everything always leans toward black or white, with very little grey areas. This happens to be where I reside, being a male who values his masculinity; however, I also wear cosmetics and stick to a more androgynous style outside of the workplace. This has proven difficult as I have to keep both words VERY distant to remain in both.

With all that being said, I want to let everyone that may be in my situation know that it is possible! I have worked hard at maintaining both spirits, and actively embracing them. I found a job that allows me to slightly customize my appearance. At work, I wear very light cosmetics, mostly of which consists of color correction for my horrible bags under my eyes, and neutral eye-liner to bring my eyes to the front. I have found that these slight adjustments not only cater to my feminine side, but give me more confidence in the workplace, and in turn allows me to communicate with others easier.

In my personal life, I could not have ended up in a better position. I have found the most amazing partner in this life. We are best described as "partners in crime", and she is my wife. She has a dominant personality, so we compliment each other well. We are best friends first, which provides a very fluid dynamic to our relationship. We share everything with each other, keeping an "always open" line of communication.

In the end, I guess what I wish to convey is that with hard work, anyone can be happy in this world. I may not be persecuted as some in this world are, but I can relate to the struggle some deal with. If I could pass on any advise, it would be to embrace yourself for who you are - and create the world you want to live in.

KM