Yeah, that lab situation is something else.
What's funny, assuming I'm remembering things correctly, is that a big chunk of lab services started out private in AB, then were taken over by the province, and now they're private again, and overseen by slightly reorganized version of the same initial private players.
Drop a magnet link my guy, I will happily pirate your work.
Maybe a Patreon or whatever link too while you're at it.
Water under the fridge, boys.
Don't really understand why I'm jumping into the garbage fire here, but here we go.
Let's assume it's accurate to classify being trans as a mental illness, just for the sake of argument. What if I told you we've tried pure psychological treatment and other medical interventions for trans people before - similar, interestingly enough, to L, G, B, and Q people* - and it is simply ineffective? What if I told you, after many years and unnecessarily dead humans, affirmation of identified gender, hormone treatment and surgical intervention were found to be the most effective means available for resolving the suffering inherent in the condition?
Let's also assume that despite this illness, a trans person is otherwise deemed fit and capable for rational decision making. You'd need evaluation by a psychiatrist to ensure this is true (which generally happens), but if so they have a fundamental right to bodily autonomy. Who are you or I to tell them what they can or cannot do to their bodies? Hell, if you right now wanted to surgically alter your dick to be comically large, if you're otherwise capable of decision-making (and a third party can attest to this), would you accept someone saying you can't, assuming you've accepted the possible risks?
End of the day, trans people are normal people who happen to have a disconnect between self-image and physical presentation based on hormone makeup and bodily form, and suffer quite a bit due to it. Transitioning is a game changer for most, and allows them to participate more effectively in the wider world without that baggage.
All you need to do is use a preferred pronoun, as community acceptance is a big, if low effort, part of the 'cure'. If you get it wrong, 99% of the time you'll be politely corrected. No one is going to crucify you for this.
Now, you can actively choose not to for whatever reason - but all that really does is make you an asshole in the eyes of many. Why? Because you're reinforcing something that causes another human pain, and what for? What does this accomplish for yourself, the trans person you're talking to, and your wider community, exactly?
I'm personally shocked this is such a hot button issue. Let other humans be whatever the hell they want to be, if they are competent to make decisions for themselves and 'changing' reduces their suffering. The world's burning, we have more pressing concerns than what our fellow humans have or don't have in their pants.
*A omitted simply because I don't know if asexual people were subject to anything like treatment for gay, lesbian or queer people at the hands of psychiatry and medicine more broadly historically. I imagine not, but I could be 100% wrong, and am without question uninformed.
You're 100% overthinking it. If you like her and she's into the idea, date her - more to the point, get to know her in that context.
If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But I mean, I've been with my partner for 14 years (married for 8 of them) with a 7 year age gap, meeting at the opposite end of our 20s. Sometimes it works.
Oh man...
Please don't let feelings of being less than due to inexperience stop you from pursuing a relationship if that is something you want. Don't worry about comparison - you can't control that. What you can do is present your best self, as you are, and let the chips fall where they may. You might be surprised.
Told frequently I am smart, all evidence available when really considering the question points to actually being of average intelligence, and in some areas phenomenally dumb.
Rambling follows, feel free to ignore or read on if bored.
Something my father told me comes to mind here. I was complimented frequently on being a bright student when I was younger, so with all this flattery in mind I took an online IQ test. It was a pretty good score, though I don't remember what it is (and can't speak to its accuracy - I was a kid, tf did I know about test standards). I rushed up to my dad and told him about it. He sat me down and said "IQ is just a measurement of potential - that's it. It's what you actually do with that potential that's important."
I have not really done much with that potential, if I'm honest with myself. Sure, I got good grades in school, dean's list in university, all that stuff. But when I look at my day to day life - my work, my interests, etc. - I'm struck with this sense that it's the kind of life designed for people who authority figures like to call smart, but only as an appeal to ego to serve the aims of other people. Smart takes on the same meaning as a good boy - you obey the rules, don't make too much trouble, come up with clever solutions to other people's problems, and don't neccessarily put much thought into your own. And where you recognize these problems, they are personal failures - always - that only you can solve, alone. Smart people don't need help - it's 100% false, but it's an hard idea to shake off, simply because the answer I usually got when asking about any problem is "You're smart - you'll figure it out". And I did, mostly - but what about those I couldn't, and still haven't?
The danger here is that being "smart", by dint of repetition more than tangible evidence, becomes a cornerstone in my sense of self. But all those people calling me smart and reinforcing this idea - what did they actually mean? Did they mean I am innately intelligent? Did they mean I was compliant? Did they mean I would do well as a nice little cog in a larger system? Or did they mean I actually had the potential to change something worthwhile?
Over the years, I've come to dislike the term smart given all of the above. I like to sub in clever in most cases, because you don't have to be smart, overall, to come up with a clever idea or solution. The idea of being smart, accepted uncritically, can be a prison. And most of the time it isn't true in any meaningful sense.
Smart, dumb - just try and do cool shit you find interesting. Be kind to other people. Do new things, and be willing to look like an absolute dumbass once and a while. Don't let your sense of intelligence become a complex - no matter who are, you're probably wrong about a lot of shit, go test that as often as you possibly can. You'll probably learn something, no matter how "smart" you are.