Shaking Cages


​There are moments in your transition where you feel like you are walking through a hurricane. The last few days tested me in ways I didn't know I could be tested. Heartbreak and grief tried to force me back into the dark. As I wrote in my last post, the fear almost won, and I even put the old armor back on for a few hours.

​But I didn't stay there. I found my patch, and I climbed back out.

​Yesterday, I stumbled across a song that stopped me dead in my tracks. It’s the acoustic version of a song called "Shaking Cages" by Silent Theory. When I listened to it, it felt like the lead singer was pulling the words directly from the deepest, rawest part of my core.

​"I see a light on the horizon... I'm going to keep lighting fires... and I'm going to keep shaking cages."

​For 41 years, I lived in a fear-ridden cage. I spent decades quietly existing behind the heavy iron bars of someone else's expectations, terrified of the lock. I built an entire life in the shadows. But the woman I am today? She isn't quiet anymore. I am shaking the cage until the hinges break and the whole thing falls apart.

​Today, I took a picture.

​I looked at the woman in the photo, unfiltered, present, and staring right back at the camera, and I realized something profound. The ghost is truly gone. The heavy machinery of pretending to be a man has stopped.

​I made it my new Facebook profile picture, and I sent it out to a few people with a simple message: "The New Me."

​It takes a lot of courage to say those three words out loud. "The New Me" is a declaration. It is me drawing a line in the sand and telling the world that the old disguise has been permanently retired. The woman in this picture is the one who survived the trauma, who made it through the profound heartbreak of this week, and who is fiercely, relentlessly guarding her peace.

​She is Serenity.

​If you are out there reading this and feeling trapped in your own disguise, or feeling like the storm of your transition is just too heavy right now, I want you to listen to this song.

​Keep lighting fires. Keep shaking cages. You are absolutely worth the fight it takes to get to the sun.

​Listen to my current soul-anthem here: [https://youtu.be/fig2MTk6yPo?si=TSObkEeyIt8t7o_c] [02:45]

​#ClimbingOutBlog #SerenityBlankenship #ShakingCages #TheNewMe #TransJoy #TransIsBeautiful #AuthenticSelf #LivingMyTruth #TransVisibility #GirlsLikeUs #SilentTheory

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