My name is Jordan and as the title suggests this is a fundraiser for top surgery.

I'm an 18-year-old trans male. I am currently studying my passion and trying really hard to find a job.
People who know me know I don't like asking for help.
But top surgery is something I need help with. As a transgender person I struggle with body and gender dysphoria everyday. On bad days my dysphoria makes simple everyday tasks a struggle. Top surgery will elevate a huge amount of the dysphoria I feel and improve my overall health.

Although this same story has been told many times before me I feel that reiterating it is necessary.

I was in year 8 when I found out what being transgender was and on that day things simultaneously clicked into place and fell apart at the same time. I was shocked to find out that what I had felt for so long wasn't just me feeling crazy but actually something real and that there was something I could do about it. But it also led to the pain of trying to cope with it alone.
I was terrified that my friends and family wouldn't support me.

After trying to keep how I felt a secret for years and doing a lot of research on my own, I decided that transitioning to male was something that I had to do. I was depressed, alone and hurting. I knew transitioning was my only option.

I came out to my family at the start of 2015 and started living my life as a male. I began going to a gender therapist so that I could start taking hormones, which I have now been on for almost 5 months.

After starting hormones I knew what the next step was. I have talked it over with my parents and my therapist, and they agree that I am 100% ready for top surgery.
The binders that I wear to feel more comfortable in my skin cause me a lot of pain and make it really difficult to breathe, restrict the amount of exercise I can do and badly overheat my body. Slowly but surely binding is damaging my health, but I cannot cope not wearing one.

I'm fortunate to have supportive parents and I'm thankful they have insurance that will cover the hospital fees. However it still leaves a large sum of money that we must come up with to move forward and be my authentic self. (It will cost around $7000 up front and my family are going to help pay for it too)
Finding a job is very difficult as a young transperson but I am trying my best. To keep myself busy when not studing or looking for jobs I volunteer at www.transmenofwa.org helping kids and their parents deal with the issues we face. It helps to keep my mind off things helping others through the same issues.

I am really hoping to have surgery by the end of the year so that I can freely continue studying my passion at Tafe and be my true authentic self with out having to worry about dysphoria and the down days.