Welcome To The Life and Times of Trucker Patti

Welcome to my blog.  My name is Patti, however because of my years calling into Sirius/XM OutQ radio, some people know me better as Trucker Patti. "Trucker Patti" is also the title of a documentary short based on my life.  While I have posted blog entries before, this is my first attempt at doing a blog strictly about myself.  I am looking forward to it being an interesting adventure.

I intend to be as open and candid as I possibly can . I would like to tell a bit about myself and my life as it is and who I am now, as well as what my hopes and dreams are for the future.  The goal then will be to share as many stories as I can about my life.  I have found in the past, that telling a story will sometimes jog a memory of another story.  I am hoping to use that format to make this blog interesting reading for those who are logging in. 

I also will be looking to see how many people are reading.  I hope people are reading and then sharing with everyone they know.  Seeing more people reading will give me a kick in the behind to motivate me to write more.  My passion at this point in my life, is transgender and intersex awareness and understanding.  This passion is what is fueling my desire to write.

If I am 60 years old.  You might ask why it has taken me this long to find my passion.  I am hoping, as I write, to discover the answer to this question, because I myself don't yet know the answer.  I have always been envious of those who find their passion early in life.  But, better late than never.

My life these days is pretty good.  I live in a small trailer park in the country in the Ozark mountains of central Missouri.  I live in a 30 foot travel trailer with a big slide out.  I love my trailer.  I used to have a 1500 square foot, three bedroom two bath home.  It was great to have that house while I was younger and could physically keep up with the maintenance. For several years, I was helping to raise my two stepsons and generally whenever they were over, they had friends with them so when I had kids, I had a houseful of  boys.  My two stepsons are now grown with lives of their own.  It was a good decision to sell the house.  I love where I live.  I have wonderful neighbors and am close enough to town to get the things that I need, but far enough outside of town to have that country feel.

One of my biggest regrets is that I did not save more money.  I have enough of an income to be very comfortable as long as I am careful.  I don't have enough money to travel.  I would love to travel and spread my message of transgender and intersex awareness and understanding.  I would also love to do television and movies.  Participating in my documentary short and a recent stint as an extra on the television show "Glee," have given me the acting bug.  I am hoping to put together a package to submit to LGBTQ friendly colleges and universities in the hope they would sponsor me to come and speak to the students.

I spent 25 years living, as some in the transgender community call "stealth mode."  What living in stealth mode means is that no one other than my family knew that I had been born with a penis and had gender affirmation surgery.  The people in my life viewed me as an ordinary, heterosexual woman.  I believe that pulling that off successfully for 25 years was great training for me to be in the acting world.  Plus, I have been told that the camera likes me.  If you get a chance to see my documentary short or the episode of "Glee" that I will be on, you can be a good judge of that for yourself.

I would love to do more television.  I would love to be in movies.  So, if you know anyone that can help make that happen for me, please let me know.  I am honestly not looking for fame or fortune.  What I am more interested in, is getting my face and name out into the public so that I can share my story and my passion for transgender and intersex awareness and understanding with more people. 

In the last few years, I have shared part of my story with many people.  What surprised me more than anything else, was how many people in the LGB community knew so little about trans people.  Many of them told me I was the first trans person they had ever hung out with.  I encouraged them to ask me any question that they could think of and I would be happy to give them as honest and open an answer as I possibly could.  These conversations are what sparked my passion. 

I have gained a very small bit of notoriety because of my years calling into radio shows and my documentary short.  I have decided to use that notoriety to do something to help trans people.  For 25 years, I basically hid in the straight community.  The best thing that I ever did for myself, was when I came back out eight years ago.  I am now out and proud.

I live every day with the psychological damage of what living with "the secret" that I had been born intersex and transgender for so many years has done to me.  By sharing my story and spreading awareness and understanding wherever and whenever possible, I am hoping to mitigate some of the damage and hopefully help other people at the same time.

So, my friends, I ask you to come along on this journey of discovery  and remembrance with me.  A lot of people tell me I have lived an interesting life.  And, when I look at it dispassionately, I can see that what people tell me might be true.  I struggle with the actual reality that people find me interesting.  That may be because my life is just that, my life.  What has been normal for me, is abnormal or interesting to others.  I'm not sure, but hopefully we will see.