Starting my Name Change Petition & Other Life Updates

What's up! I guess it's time to give an update. I'm still working towards my trekking poles, and I'll hopefully have them by the end of the week. In other news, I've started the process to legally change my name and gender marker!!! It's something that has become extremely important in planning my journey for several reasons. I think it's really important that my ID and passport match my visible gender, and as I'm preparing to leave for this journey and am hoping to sign up for races too, it's even more important to be able to have an accurate ID. One of my main concerns is reaching and crossing the Canadian border, because it would be so uncomfortable for my ID to look like someone else's! There was also so much stress about signing up for my first 5K, and I hope to have everything updated by then, fingers crossed. Not only this, but I worried about the trail association membership and my name, and I've also just been stressing over feeling like I'm lying when I tell someone my chosen name. I'm so grateful and thankful that there are people helping me with this, and the process will be hopefully completely free for me. I'm currently filing the papers and getting everything ready. I don't want to get too excited until it's finally completed. But, anyways, I can't wait!! Also, this morning I ran my fastest 5K again, and I got to under 8 minutes per mile pace!! I realized how important it is to stay rested and have enough sleep. I'm also focusing on drinking less because I know it affects my health and fitness. To avoid stress, I've been working in the late afternoon, avoiding the extreme UV levels. It has been working out for me. I'm napping and researching during the day when it's too hot to go outside. As an unfortunate side note, I might have to postpone my journey to next year, because I fear that I won't have enough money to do it. Maybe I'll start making money some other way, but it's looking like I might have to wait. In the long term, it won't matter. Unless I suddenly die before I get to leave, but let's not get that macabre. It's to be decided for now. I still have to try to sell a painting, maybe I can do some tutoring. Anyways.. that was my little update.