Here is Travis Stanton 's response to comments on the essay he wrote after learning his father was going to become a woman . Friday night my dad came down from Lake Worth to watch Her Name Was Steven -- the CNN documentary about him -- with our family and some friends . It meant a lot to me and my mother that my dad was down at our house , in the room much less where all of this first happened . My dad , my mother , some neighborhood friends and my girlfriend Ashlee all sat down Saturday night to watch it . We all loved it . The next day my dad showed me some of the comments on the CNN web site about the essay I wrote about him in 8th grade for a school project . These comments were some of the nicest things I 've read about myself in my life . As people saw my posting , they started asking me some questions . I started answering them . One good question was : `` How did my schoolmates react to all of this ? Were they supportive or negative towards this ? `` Well , the night my dad told me about his plans to become a woman was also the same night that the news stations found out and aired the story . Surprisingly to my parents , I decided to go to school the next day . I went to a small school at the time . It was a school with grades 4-8 and had about 300 kids total . I was in the 8th grade . As I got dropped off , before I could even walk in the school , some teachers and a bunch of my friends came running out to hug me and say it 's going to be okay . I was still in shock from all of this , but I 'm pretty good at hiding my emotions . Unfortunately having all of your friends hugging you and knowing about this brought out some tears . All of my 8th grade friends knew about this , and mostly all of them were supportive . Now I 'm in the 10th grade at high school with about 3000 students , so it 's a bit different . When I started high school , the story of my dad had kind of settled down . I 've not really gotten any support from my new high school friends because we do n't talk about it . I 've been asked a few times if Susan Stanton was related to me and I say , `` Yes , that 's my dad . '' Other than about three of those little `` are-you-related '' questions from people I partially knew , I have n't been approached by any kids at school . Yes , some people tell me that my dad is kind of weird and I completely agree . When you truly love someone you learn to accept the choices they make . It 's no different if your mom said , `` I am going to shave off all my hair . '' Would you stop loving her because of that ? Hopefully not . This is the same thing with my dad , but its i obviously a little more than a haircut . One of the comments that I read was that it was selfish for my dad to use the money on his surgery . Was it selfish of my dad ? Absolutely -- 100 percent -- not . If you had those feelings , I am sure all of us would do the same thing . It would be almost rude to live the rest of his life in pain knowing he was n't himself and not truly who he felt he was . Money was always a problem ever since my dad got fired . Like I said in the documentary , the biggest negative change that impacted our family was dad losing his job . I know that if we were really down to the last dollars we had , my dad would not have done the surgery until we got back on our feet . Both of my parents are really financially smart and we have planned ahead to live a comfortable life . The more important part is me and my mom still live in our house . I 've lived in this house since I was a baby and I ca n't imagine having to move . In conclusion , I would like to thank everyone who read my essay . The comments I read about myself are some of the nicest things I have ever read about me . I love the feedback that I get , good or bad . Travis .
Travis Stanton watched CNN 's `` Her Name Was Steven '' with his father , Susan Stanton . Travis appreciates all of the feedback he gets . Here , he responds to viewer comments about his earlier essay . Comment: