Violette Bowhay:  

Well, I was a brief part of the Mt Baker High School class of 2000, although my name wasn't Violette and I looked very different back then. I couldn't wait to get out of Deming and so I dropped out of high school in 1998 and got my GED. I went to Bellingham Technical College and thought I would go make it rich in the tech world. Ha. Well I ran a small web design company for a few years and when that hadn't taken off like I had wished, I jumped on a plane and moved to Florida. I spent a year in Florida but it was too hot, too far from home and I hit a dead end. So I headed back to Bellingham. That was in August of 2006, and there was no way I was staying. By Novemeber I had a new job in Seattle and started into a career as a front end web developer for Microsoft. I remained a vendor to them until early 2011. By then I knew that I had to shed my former self, the one you went to school with. I was fed up with the effort of trying to act like someone I wasn't. Unfortunately being frustrated with me, was showing through at work. I decided it was time to come out, but the company I worked for let me go a couple of months later. It wasn't until 2012 that I was comfortable enough with myself and my employer to "come out" again. In August 2011 I legally changed my name and on August 13th 2012 I let the working world meet the real me. Finally shedding the name Chris and embracing the person I always knew I was. I know now it is the best thing I have ever done. I was scared and excited at the time. I thought that first day was going to be some life altering feeling, some euphoria, there was nothing. Tha...Expand for more