I am me. is a piece for violin and cello about the internal conflicts faced by transgender/gender nonconforming people. More specifically, it is about fighting against a constant inner voice that is trying to disallow any feelings of gender queerness. The violin represents desire to express gender in a way that goes against biological sex, and to be the truest version of the self. The cello represents feelings of doubt and worry about expressing gender in any way that goes against the norms of biological sexes, wanting to instead do away with those feelings. The cello is constantly trying to force the violin to conform to its idea of how/what it should be playing, much like how society often tries to force transgender/gender nonconforming individuals to conform to their idea of how they should act, dress, and express themselves. Every time the violin shows signs of self-expression, the cello comes back to respress all of its expressive desires, sometimes even creating a slapping sound (metaphorically slapping the genderqueer feelings in a self-abusive nature). The violin constantly conforms to what the cello wants it to play, continuously failing to play well that way, only producing painful dissonance. After much battling, the violin finally chooses to express itself freely, going against what the cello tries to force it to play, and plays a beautiful solo melody. The feelings of repression stop, and life can finally be lived comfortably as the truest version of the self, the most beautiful version.