I grew up in Missorui in the 90's. This is your cue to overlay the socially conservative sterotypes you have about the midwest. Good.

After an exploratory start to life after high-school, I found myself back in my home town, enrolled in a state school.

For 1 year, I lived in the honor dorms. There was a male wing and a female wing. You couldnt be on the other wing after 10pm.

Midway thru that year, I was already applying to transfer out. I'd feel like I fit. I felt constricted, narrow, under stimulated, uncomfortable.

The next year I transfered to Bard College. There was so much stretching I had to do to fit into this new place. Some say Bard puts the "liberal" in "liberal arts."

One such stretch was the dorm bathrooms. They were a large U shapped room with stalls along one side, showers along the other, and sinks in the middle.

The bathroom was non-gendered.

From a gender restricted dorm, to a non-gendered bathroom.

I was uncomfortable. But was it bad?

My discomfort shifted and melted quickly. I was left distinctly changed, looking back thru my life, and looking forward. What moments of discomfort did I evaluate to be bad, but were actually just unfamiliar?

Is this uncomfortable-bad, or uncomfortable-unfamiliar?