But I do think that most of the interactions I have, and I’ve been back and forth across the country since the documentary, I find that people are willing to talk to you or willing to be nice. I also tend to go to places where I feel there are possibly disenfranchised people or people that are not so settled. So I go to a lot of thrift stores. And in those conversations in those places, I’m talking to people who could be there for a variety of reasons, but they’re in a thrift store.
We all have a community from the beginning when you walk in. I find a lot of comfort in places like that as in dive bars. When you’re in a dive bar, there’s lots of reasons to be in dive bars, but one of them is just a search for community, unless you’re going there angry at your husband and you just want to drink by yourself, I don’t know.
LA: I feel like a dive bar for me often ends up offering a real cross section of a community or of people who live in a place, like you said, looking for community, and that’s why I love them.
HS: Well, so much so. And what I thought of envy about England is pub culture. Because after work hours, the streets are filled with people jabbering and talking to each other and it’s really quite… I don’t know, there’s just something very communal about that. I don’t know what the equivalent is for us. So ours is a little more isolated, a little more lonely, but you still do get a sense of those connections that can happen in those places.
LA: What does 2025 look like for you as a writer, as a traveler? What have you got in the pipeline?
HS: The traveling for me is never really planned out, but I will most definitely do it. My family is spread out across the country, down in Texas and up in Minnesota and Iowa and North Carolina. I will hit the road at some point in 2025, maybe once or twice for sure. And then in terms of work, I’m working on a show now and I’m halfway into a film that we’ll see if it ever gets made, but I write and that’s what I keep doing. That’s what I get paid for. My career is established.
I’m not super worried about whatever future I have. I can drive across my country, which I grew up in, and feel present and be myself in. It’s wonderful, and I have felt that since the documentary. I gained a lot of confidence going across the country. Again, partly a false sense of security because I was with Will and a camera crew, but my confidence level was a lot higher.
And so when I’ve been back and forth, I’ve had no hesitancy going into truck stops and bathrooms, and this transition has just been like a get out of jail free card. So I don’t know why my euphoria would ever stop. I definitely wake up happier every day. I just feel more present every day. I’m hoping it doesn’t stop. I don’t know. I have a lot of trans friends who are like, “I don’t feel a lot of trans people for you anymore.”
I don’t know. I think it’s a little different for someone who’s come out so late. Let me know that it won’t stick around forever and you’ll just return to being a miserable human being at some point, which I don’t know, I never really was. I’m hoping that doesn’t happen.
LA: Harper, this was so wonderful. Thank you for giving us so much time. I know we ran over, so I’m very, very, very appreciative.
HS: That’s fine. Thank you, guys, and good luck.
LA: Thank you for listening to Women Who Travel. I’m Lale Arikoglu, and you can find me on Instagram @lalehannah. Our engineers are Jake Lummus, James Yost, Vince Fairchild, and Pran Bandi. The show is mixed by Amar Lal at Macrosound. Jude Kampfner of Corporation for Independent Media is our producer. Stephanie Kariuki is our executive producer, and Chris Bannon is Condé Nast’s head of Global Audio.
