I come from a land not marked on any map, a place where words grow like moss, slow and deliberate, and where being is valued over having. In this fourth act of my life, I stand as an expat from Værensland, finally settled in my own skin, embracing the flow of my journey. But before you see who I am today, you must first understand the journey it took to get here.

Act I – A child adrift in a sea of tragic circumstances, abuse, and emotional neglect. The world offered no handholds, only loss and chaos. There was no connection, no grounding. This act was the story of survival, of making it through the noise with nothing but fragments of myself held together by sheer will.

Act II – An illiterate wanderer, drifting from one odd job to another, living by brute strength, anger, and violence. I became a champion athlete, finding solace in the disciplined movements of martial arts and the rigor of sports. My hands knew the language of strength long before they knew the dance of words. It was during this act that I first glimpsed literacy, a crack of light that promised more.

Act III – A bridge to light. Freemasonry brought me community, a grounding in something ancient and enduring. My career in forensic science opened doors to a world of order and answers, and I travelled the globe chasing both. Emerging literacy allowed me to navigate this new landscape, and I began to carve out a family, a career, and an identity beyond anger. It was also here that I finally received the answers I had sought my entire life: my autism diagnosis. It was a moment of revelation, a key that unlocked a new understanding of myself.

Act IV – This is where you find me now. I have retired from forensic science, but my work continues in the form of thousands of articles, papers, and multiple books. I am now a schoolteacher, a PhD, a poet, and finally—after all these years—out in the open as a trans woman. This act is not the end but a new beginning, one where I fully embrace my identity, my neurodivergence, and the joy of creating. In this act, I weave my experiences into words, offering them to others who might find resonance in the rhythms of this strange, beautiful journey.

Here in the fourth act, I am both the script and the actor, writing the lines as I go. This is not an end, but a continuation of becoming, an ever-evolving story of reclamation and transformation.