By Isabelle Derocher
The Tell Tale
Holly HS
1st Place
Division 1, Yearbook
Feature Writing – Student Life
While our high school years are often generalized as confusing times, senior Simon Vanslyke seems to have it all figured out. Likewise, gender identity is often perceived as predetermined—it’s not a fluid concept that the individual defines and decides. However, VanSlyke once again defies this misconception. VanSlyke was previously known as August and identified as female. However, VanSlyke has changed both name and gender, now identifying as Simon and male. “I actually didn’t pick [the name],” he said. “I talked to all my friends and said, ‘This is something that I’m thinking about doing, I don’t really know if I want to go full blown, and I don’t know what I would call myself even if I did.’ At the end of that day, all my friends came in and said, ‘we voted you Simon! That’s the only name that will ever suit you!’” Obviously, VanSlyke’s friends were accepting and encouraged him to be true to himself. But, he questioned if his family would be just as supportive. “I had a dream that I was pretending to be a guy, and I told my dad about it. And he was like, “Hey, for as long as I’ve known you, you never wanted to be the princess for Halloween, you wanted to be the prince. You never wanted to be the damsel in distress, you wanted to be the knight.” Although VanSlyke didn’t know what to say or what to do at first, his friends and family made the desire to change so obvious. “Honestly, to me it was always a question,” VanSlyke revealed, “and they answered so emphatically, saying, ‘yes, this is okay’ and ‘yes, we think this is who you are.’” While he has always been very comfortable in his own skin, this overwhelming acceptance and compassion only deepened his contentment.