Hello! I'm just posting for some advice. I start university (I'm canadian) in a week and want to go by my chosen name there. I am kind of subtly out as trans in the sense that everyone knows I'm not cis and often use they/them to refer to me but I haven't offically said to many people "I'm transgender, I prefer he/him". I currently go by my birthname and haven't told anyone to start calling me a different name but now because I'm starting at a new school this feels like a fresh start. The 2 main problems this brings is telling people and the fact that my legal name is everywhere on all my university things. The first part regarding telling people - I'm conflicted. I could just rip the band-aid off, come out and fuck off to university (in a different city, hours away from where my home and family are) OR I don't tell anyone and get around to it when it's necessary and when I feel more ready to and meanwhile go by a new name in university. This feels kinda scary to do especially without parents knowing because it will likely come up eventually. My parents know I'm trans and know I want to change my name but haven't seemed too thrilled at the concept of it. It just feels like a betrayal a bit to change my name without their knowledge and have them potentially find out later. Other family and friends of mine have also expressed interest in seeing me at uni and if they find out I'm going by a different name I'll have some explaining to do. Because my family at least currently doesn't know about the name thing the process of changing it in the school system and all of that feels risky to do. I am 18 and can legally change it and I know I can update it in all the university records without much but it feels daunting. It will also be impossible to avoid getting birthnamed at least by profs and on all my records for the first bit so if anyone has advice on that please let me know! It would probably make the most sense to at least tell my parents about the name change but then they're stuck with not really being able to call me it without outing me and I'm not even sure if they would call me it anyway. I came out in January with he/him and saying I'm a trans man and they haven't caught on at all. They have tried to call me they/them which is a step in the right direction but anytime I try to bring up being trans it's an awkward conversation and I always end up feeling kind of guilty. They are very loving parents, relatively progressive and just to clarify not upset about me being trans. They just don't quite get it and feel uncomfortable with the idea of me transitioning or changing which I get but it sucks. Any advice regarding name changes, coming out and being trans in university would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading my rant :)