It’s not that bad, just inconvenient. I do appreciate how it’s given me a unique perspective on many things and helped me figure out things I wouldn’t have otherwise. However, on top of the bigotry that’s only gotten worse since I came out, I also needed to put in a lot of effort to reach the baseline mood that others have by default. The years I spent discovering and figuring out how to deal with my dysphoria severely impacted my academic career. I probably lost half a decade as a result, and most of it was unavoidable, as I really couldn’t have figured things out more quickly.