Maybe it's accepted over time, or maybe it isn't. Maybe a lot of time makes it easier to deal with losing literally a chunk of yourself. But I don't think it does.

"It's that if you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves."

~Junot Diaz

When I left graduate school, I came home for three years with no one that I could have the kind of intellectual connection with I had at college. It was like I was speaking a foreign language to my family and coworkers. Of course, I could go on the internet and talk about my computer stuff, but it's not the same when you are with people you trust your understanding of your knowledge with.

It's scary, and I'm still clinging to my own sense of self, even though I don't get to know whether it's still there, every single day. But I won't be marginal.