First, congratulations on your accomplishments!

I went back and reread the post linked at the beginning, and I no longer feel much kinship with that person.

I would love to see you try to do the opposite: imagine yourself being Swimmer963 as she was around January 2012 or so, reading your current post and commenting on it. What would be her impressions of you?

Also, on the subject of self-modification, here is a quote from Yvain:

Once upon a time, an evil witch transformed a prince into a frog, telling him that only the kiss of a princess could restore him to his proper form. But although he searched around the world, he could find no princess who was willing to kiss a hideous little frog. Finally, he went to the Wise Wizard. “Gender is a social construct,” said the Wise Wizard. “Just declare your gender identity to be female, then kiss yourself on the hand or something.” So the frog did that, returned to human form, and ruled the land for many years as a wise and benevolent queen.

Moral: Ability to self-modify is just ridiculously powerful.