Trans Joy

I looove thrifting and flea markets. But I have to say, I hit the absolute jackpot this weekend. I hit the motherload. The peak of peaks. The mother of all thrifting sales! It's been a rough year this past year, but the Fates has some mercy and really smiled on me this weekend.

So background. I'm going through a bit of a career transition right now. Been in engineering for my whole career, but now exploring a switch to K12 teaching. I've become a licensed substitute teacher in my state and will be substituting as much as I can through the coming year. If I like it and thrive at it, I may pursue proper full teacher licensure and make a full career transition. I love engineering as a subject, but I struggle with really debilitating ADHD/ASD and it's made office work very difficult. I just burned out after 9 months at the seventh engineering job of my career. And I'm just done. I can't do it anymore. I need to make a radical career change. I need to find work that doesn't involve working in an office. And K12 teaching is a path I'm exploring. The kind of instant feedback and meaningful work you get in a teaching position just click with me like nothing else does. I have some extensive experience in university teaching and K12 tutoring, so a switch to K12 teaching isn't a huge stretch. But the last time I was in a K12 classroom was when I myself was last in high school. I'm really scared, nervous, excited, and looking forward to it all at once!

However, I'm in dire, desperate need of a new professional wardrobe. First, I've lost a lot of weight the last year and a half, both through getting on tirzepatide and starting ADHD medication. I'm 50 pounds lighter than I was at the start of 2025. BMI has gone from 30 to 22. And my partner and I started weight lifting about 9 months ago, and that's also affected my body shape. While I feel absolutely amazing, nothing I have really fits well anymore. I'm tired of wearing loose shirts and pants scrunched tight with a belt. Depression kept me from really wanting to keep up with the wardrobe. So now I need to play catch up.

Secondly, the wardrobe I'll want to wear in K12 teaching is very different from my engineering attire. My field of engineering is very male-dominated. And teaching is a very female-dominated field. That alone is going to be quite a culture shock. But from talking with some friends who work in schools in my area, my standard engineering wardrobe will stick out like a sore thumb. And as a trans woman who is generally stealth at work, drawing attention to myself is the last thing I want. I want to "when in Rome" this. I need a wardrobe that is typical of women teachers my age in my area. My engineering wardrobe is mostly polos, fem-cut collared shirts, and a few basic blouses. It's mostly fem-cut versions of the same thing guys wear. Additionally, in my prior work, both in office work and university teaching, I've had to have a wardrobe that is compatible with industrial and laboratory environments. Dangly flowy clothes don't work well in those environments for safety reasons. Much of it is also from my baby trans days when I didn't know a cami from camo. So I know a lot more know about what I like and what works well on me.

So between needing smaller sizes and the need to really fem things up, I essentially need a whole new professional wardrobe. I need to replace almost everything in my closet. None of the skirts I have can stay up on their own. None of my pants fit without a belt. All my tops feel like I'm wearing a potato sack. Even my underwear doesn't fit. To do that by buying new would cost thousands. And while my partner and I are doing OK, me being out of work right now really hasn't been great for our finances. There simply aren't thousands in the budget right now for new clothes.

Well, the Fates saw my plight and smiled upon me this weekend. Right at my time of greatest need, the universe came through for me. I learned of the mother of all sales. A local charity thrift shop which has an absolutely enormous clothing section decided to hold one of their rare $1 sales. Literally every item is a dollar. They hold one every 4-6 months when the clothing stock starts to get too high. and I took full advantage. I was absolutely shameless.

Most people I saw there came in, looked around a bit, and were in and out in under 20 minutes. I was shopping and trying things on for hours. I had to break my try-on sessions into small chunks just to keep from hogging the one changing room.

I literally bought an entire new wardrobe. Jeans, slacks, corduroy pants, skirts, dresses, blouses, camis, tanks, incredibly fem tops of all sorts. Long sleeves, short sleeves. Formal. Casual. Clothing for every season and occasion. Even a few jackets and pairs of shoes. All in excellent condition. I spent $87 on clothes at this sale. And literally every single item was just one dollar. I got a really cute brown pleather jacket for a buck.

I do have to buy some items new. Buying bras and panties used are wear I draw the line, so I have to get those new. But because of this one single sale, I'll be spending 2-3x more on new underwear than it cost for the rest of my wardrobe put together. It was absolutely incredible. I felt like I was robbing the place.

Also, I have to say, the shopping was an absolute blast. I was like a kid in a candy store. Just beaming with joy. Found so many cute things. And even the appeal to my vanity was a hoot! I've been wearing size 10-12 for most of my post-transition life, and I was shopping sizes 6-8. I'm just finding item after item, all things I once only dreamed of being able to wear. And everything was literally just a dollar.

Sorry for the essay, but I got nowhere else to share this. And I just have to share. I hit the thrifting motherload this weekend. And it could not have come at a more perfect time in my life.