I love what I've been able to
accomplish, but
it's hard to go back and look because...
It feels like it feels
like a memory and it's like a dream that's
just not quite connected.
So Erin.
Who is this person?
That is definitely somebody I used to know.
That's um... that's me.
I remember the first time I had
done Mount Kilimanjaro, one of the Seven
Summits. The first time I was there,
presenting as a guy, I remember
feeling like if I got to the top
of that mountain, I would really
prove to myself and to the world that that
person was that person.
I went up there, I feel like, for maybe all
the wrong reasons.
When I went there as female,
I wanted to climb out of the shadows
and climb to a place where I could be the
highest I could go, and
tell the world who I am.
And no one could accuse me of being ashamed
of it, and nobody could instill the
stigma of who I was.
I wanted to own my story.
Hey allies, guess who?
It's me, your favorite climber.
So, I am two
steps to the top of this mountain.
This is the point where I start thinking
about who got me here.
And I thank all you guys.
Family, friends, everybody who lifts me
up, and
everybody that pushes me up to
the tops of these mountains.
With Erin, she never wanted to be
the spokesperson for the community.
She never wanted to be visible.
For her, it took her
so long in life to transition
because there wasn't anybody
that she looked at and related to and
thought,"They're doing this.
I can do this. I know I can do this."
Someone's got to do it and
she nominated herself.
This aqua's pretty.
You're pretty. Erin is.
Thank you. Not of all of us.
I am.
What! You're the prettiest of all of us?
Yeah. And then Mama?
I'm so not answering that.
Answer it. I'm not going to.
My name is Alyx, spelled with a "y". And
basically who I am is, well..
I'm a kid that loves cats.
Like there's that.
Well, I don't know when they first met.
My mom met her way before
I met her.
We usually paint rocks or go
climbing,
and skiiting is one of her favorite things.
She told me that she was climbing a bunch
of different mountains.
She also told me that the
very last one is going to be Mt.
Everest.
I definitely want to see the Seven Summits
move on. I know that I have to do a lot of
training in order to get there:
High-intensity
interval training, getting my heart up,
bringing it back down, lIlifting, stair
climbing.
It took a long time to get into the shape
where I can go day after day after
day after day.
Hey, how are you?
It's good to see you.
I was thinking the other day about when
we were in B.C.
in one of the backcountry trips. And were
standing on the side of the hill...
I was always very athletic
and enjoyed sports, and things like that
when I was growing up.
It was just so nice to have a family member
and somebody who I could relate to living
out west.
You know, a lot of my growth in learning
more about backcountry and skiing
and things like that was with Erin.
I always had a special connection
with Erin. I think at the time,
necessarily, we didn't understand
what that connection was.
When I came out to Beth, I was so afraid.
You've got all of these people in your
life, and you go decades wondering,
"What would they say if, you know, I let
them know who the true me was?"
I knew she was gonna be one of the people
that I could trust.
This was gonna be no different.
If that's what Erin wanted, I was
behind her 100%.
Aside from tackling Seven Summits
and her own journey, being willing
to be a spokesperson or a role
model for a whole subset
of society or community is just
more than I can...
more than I can fathom.
I can't believe it.
We got to do another ski trip.
We do. I know.
We do.
Maybe we'll put them on the list when you
get your Seven Summits done. When I get it
done.
Hi, how are you?
It's been so long.
It's good to see you. It has been a while.
Good to see you. Come sit. Alright. Sounds
great. You look good. Thank you.
Now remind me where we are. So this,
everything is done? It's gone?
Or the stitch stayed? Not the stitch is
gone. So because of this vocal cord injury,
your body wants to compensate and
kind of the wrong thing.
And so in order to do the right thing, it's
all about breathing.
Connect to the breath, hear the sounds.
The syllables "he" to the vowel "uuu".
He,uuu.
Relax your face.
He, uuu.
Okay, we'll come back to this.It's... yeah
it really ends up in my throat right at
then.
Yeah, you're still at 300Hz.
So you're at 300Hz two years ago.
A year and a half ago, the last time I
measured,
you're still at 300Hz.
So where is your voice with this dysphoria?
Do you feel triggered a lot?
Yeah. I'd say it's the one thing that
I struggled with the most.
Alright, here's a hard question.
What if this is always how it's going to be
and that's just that?
I don't know.
I guess I'd rather just work at
it and make it better if I had to.
I mean, if this is what I'm stuck with,
then that's what I'm stuck with because I
made a bad decision to have surgery.
So what are the other things you do to work
on dysphoria to kind of be at peace with
yourself?
Because you do so much.
At this point, it's becoming a lot of
self-acceptance and being proud of who I
am.
There's a whole narrative that goes along
with transition in the United States:
You feel like you can be you, but
you can't be seen and you can't be heard.
Everything the Seven Summits stood for to
me, was bucking that stigma and
saying that I could own my own narrative.
To show myself who I was and how strong
I was and how strong I had become.
And that was my way that I sought to do
that.
I think these last
few years, I've grown so much
strength and confidence as a person.
Being myself was so valuable to me.
I was willing to give up everything.
But to know that I had the strength
to refine that joy in my life
has been something I couldn't
have done without my family.
I'm Eriin Parisi and I've decided to climb
all of the Seven Summits as my true self.
