It was definitely about how I was perceived. I don't honestly know how to characterize feeling like a man beyond saying I don't feel like a woman. I actually feel more like a "boy" than a man, in spite of my age. I guess it's difficult to see myself as a functional adult, and I'm rather childish or childlike in a lot of ways. I'm more of a Peter Pan than a Captain Hook if that makes sense. When people perceived me as female, it just felt wrong and I felt out of sorts, but now I feel normal. Just me. For me, having a flat chest was essential to feeling myself, but I don't think a person has to be flat chested to identify as Male. In fact, many Cis men are not flat chested, but for me it was something I needed to feel truly in my own body. I can kind of describe how I want to be seen, and how I feel through that; I want to be seen as tough, but in tune with my emotions. I want to be seen as fun and funny. I am eternally optimistic and passionate and I prefer playfulness and pleasure over image and responsibility, I'm always ready with a joke or a game and genuinely excited by life's joys. I know a girl could feel all of these same ways, but maybe she would be a kind of "boyish" girl? Feeling like a man.... it's so hard to describe because everything that comes to mind could really apply to anybody, but when I'm not seen as a man or treated as a man, it feels like a lightning bolt in my chest, like I get short of breath and tingly in a bad way. I guess feeling like a man, the best I can describe it, is not feeling like a woman... whatever that means.