I am so sorry to hear that. How did your parents handle the news?

As long as it makes you happy and you felt comfortable with the new you. All worked out well in the end. I was kind of an outcast in my first school, poor kid in a very rich school. I brought a lot of negative attention onto myself by dressing rather odd. Not the cool goth chick kind of odd, or the sassy Pretty In Pink kind of odd. More like the wearing oversized boxershorts over thermal pants, big baggy socks, and oversized sweatshirt, and my grandfather's fishing hat kind of odd. It wasn't the teasing about my clothes or not being accepted that got to me, it was the vicious rumors that they would make up, about me. Having to cut my hair because I can't get the gum out, or getting a love note in my locker, knowing it was a set up. Those things hurt. However, I did have the friends that counted. I had the friends that would make fun of what I was wearing but still accept me and stand by me no matter what.
When I moved, I tried to reinvent myself by changing my name. Instead of going by the second half of my full name, as I have been called all my life, I told all these new people to call me by the first half of my full name. The problem was, I didn't recognize it when I heard it. It was all shattered when my sister moved back home and decided to finish out her senior year at my school. She blew it! She told everyone my common name, so I gave up, went back to the old me, and as a result, ended up with a circle of friends exactly like the ones from my home town. Some of them, I still talk to on a regular basis. For me, just being the me I have always been worked out better. I guess it's a one person's meat is another person's poison situation.