Nickname: Nikki
Major: Studio Art
Campus Posse (name some friends): A lot of my friends come from the theater. I really started making friends when I auditioned for “The Cherry Orchard”.
What is your favorite part about attending the University of Maine?
My dad works at the university. For the past six years, we haven’t been able to live in the same house because when we moved he had to stay up here. It’s nice to finally be within a mile of each other for more than two days a week.
Who are the most influential people in your life? Who are your role models?
The most inspirational person in my life has been my mother. When I was first trying to explain to my parents that I was really a girl, my father didn’t know what to do. He had these preconceived notions about what his family was going to be like, and when I didn’t fit into those notions, he just ignored what I was trying to tell them before he really came around. So for a while, my mother was really on her own while she tried to figure out what it was that was making me behave so differently from my identical twin brother. When I was first showing different behavioral traits, there was nothing that came up on Google when you searched ‘boy who wants to be a girl’. She really was alone in her struggle to figure out the right thing to do. Through all of it, she kept the family together and never made me feel like I was abnormal. She is the strongest woman I have ever met.
Why do you believe your story is important?
My story is important because it isn’t just my story- it’s my family’s story. Our story is about an average family who had to struggle to find the right answers when it seemed like there were none. We didn’t have anyone to tell us that what was going on with me was alright. There was no information about transgender people when we started our journey, but we managed to make it through because of the tremendous amount of love that our family had. Our story shows that a family can overcome anything, be it adversity or miles, if they stick together and love each other enough. My family knew that they loved me, and whatever this “I want to be a girl” business was, it certainly wasn’t about to change that.
You can read about Nicole’s full story here.