Graduating from high school in the US. For a few years I really tried to come to terms with the body I had been given. Years later I understood that you can’t separate your soul from your body, no matter how hard you try. My time in the US was life-changing and made me curious for more. I stayed one year and afterwards Germany seemed to have lost all its appeal… It was the beginning of a nomadic life, exploring countries and people, that I wouldn’t trade in for anything.
I am a very inquisitive guy. At one point I decided to do a natural sciences diploma in my free time. Loved the lab work at Edinburgh university, especially because of the fancy gloves they provided for us.
I started writing a long time ago. Mostly poems and short stories… It is now at 42 years of age that i am mature enough to write my memoirs without going crazy re-living all these memories. Looking back with a twinkle in my eye… Humor is the essence!
Learning to fall in love with my body was one of the major growth experiences during my life in the Maldives.
Writing about four years life in the Maldives… Island fever and over-thinking took over at times, the rest was pure awesomeness… looking back I realize the simplicity of island life in the turquoise endlessness of the Indian Ocean definitely rates far up in the Top 10 of the happiest times of my life!
Apart from very odd stripy garments the late 80ies/early nineties presented a unique set of challenges… divorcing parents, hormones, trying to align my awkward orbit with the rest of the planet…
This drawing was done one morning as a teenager, and all the pain and confusion poured out… ever since I could remember my body had been an obstacle, imprisoning me…
My summers at the North Sea were always the best. i could roam the beach and be myself…
When I was a bit over twenty I finally grabbed a book that opened my eyes, then followed my heart and jumped into the unknown in the hope things would change for the better. Gradually they did. Being transgender defines me. But it is by far not the only thing that defines me. It is but one tiny part of a life time facing adversity and refusing to be beaten down by it all. I do not need to fit into anything, need not be labeled, need not be defined. I am simply me and that’s just fine.
Liam Klenk 