Ask Hannah!

Hi Hannah 🙂
I really love your series with En Femme. As a trans women in her early twenties it can be hard and just now coming into my body with being 1 year hrt.

That brings me to my question how do you balance work life and your personal life? Do you have any advice?

I feel my life is very segmented or compartmentalized. There’s a duality that having two different gender identities can bring. Each identity has their own world, in a way. Different friends, different email address, different wardrobes… there’s HIS life and Hannah’s life. There is little overlap, meaning few people from each world (if you will) are aware of the other plane of existence.

When it comes to balancing his work life and his personal life, well, it’s not something he is really good at. I work from home so I never am really unavailable if my boss emails me or I need to take care of something. It’s my choice whether or not I respond outside of my normal work schedule but for the most part I really don’t mind. I enjoy staying busy and getting things done, so even if I am not at my work laptop I am doing something else, such as house stuff. These things bring satisfaction and unless I am having my morning coffee you likely won’t find me on the couch.

When it comes to Hannah’s life, she is also busy but in different ways. Years ago, it used to be when Hannah would strut out into the real world she was just spending the day out. Shopping, wandering around…

But it became boring. I mean, it’s always fun to get dolled up and do things dolled up, but you can only go shopping for so long.

These days my adventures en femme are almost always tied into something that needs to be done. It could be a photo shoot because I was asked to review a product or filming a “Help Me, Hannah! video. These things are work, but I enjoy them. I like working. There’s a creative aspect that I enjoy and it’s fun to collaborate with other people. Since I am good friends with my makeup artist and photographer, even though a shoot might be work, I am doing these things with my friends which makes them feel less like work.

…It occurs to me that I am probably the last person that should be talking about a work/life balance, lol. Almost everything I do is arguably some sort of work and I rarely just… go to a movie or watch television. Even on a day off I am working on something. But again, the work I do (mostly) brings joy and the feeling that completing a task or chore brings is very satisfying to me.

So! My advice, although I am bad at this, is set boundaries and remember that your job won’t love you back. Most jobs will reward your hard work with more work, so keep that in mind.

Love, Hannah

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