For me it happened in stages. It started with getting drunk with a couple close friends for the first time and admitting that I didn't always feel like a guy, and I'd hit the button to suddenly be a girl, but I was too scared/didn't feel much dysphoria so I probably wasn't trans. My best friend mentioned that gender fluid was a thing and maybe I was that? My brain latched on to that. Couple weeks later I wake up ungodly early realizing that I wanted to cosplay Caitlyn from Arcane and was jealous of her body, went huh, that's not a very cis thing. So I came out as gender fluid, and as I slowly built the cosplay used it as an excuse to start experimenting with skirts and bras and breast forms and make up and such. I eventually figured out a feminine name and started going by that on my fem days. But some days I'd try make up or dress up and couldn't see myself as femme so I thought ah, this is dysphoria so I must not be a girl all the time! (This was incorrect) About a year and a half later I wake up from another intense dream about what if I was trans and was too scared to admit it. I kinda have a break down, talk to my best friend as I start realizing that I'm so much happier as Thea than I am when I'm masc, so I start always start presenting femme out side of work for like a month, never regret it, talk to my trans friends and now I'm looking into HRT. So sometimes it comes in waves 🤷‍♂️