My Story Part – 44 Good Morning Class

Today is my first day back to school.

It all started back when I was still working and I was thinking about retirement. I asked several friends what did they think was the best way to help the trans-community once I retired and many of them said to go and get my Master’s in Social Work.

I get the mail from the Post Office for the Connecticut Outreach Society once a week, and one week there was a college catalog from the UConn School of School Work in the mail. I was glancing through it, some of the classes sounded interesting and reading further; I found out that anyone could take the classes, not just matriculating students. The program was called STEP (Staff Training and Education for the Profession Program), it is a non- matriculating program for people who have been away from school for a while and want to get their feet wet, so to speak. They could see if going back to school to earn their masters was for them. The program allows a person to earn up to 14 credits towards a MSW and if you decide to apply fulltime, those credits are transferred in the matriculating program. The class that caught my eye was, “New Perspectives on Gays and Lesbians”

So the next day, I went down to the HR department at work to see if the company would pay for the class. After talking it over, the HR director said that she thought it was a wonderful idea, so I enrolled in two classes, the “New Perspectives on Gays and Lesbians” and Marco Practices.

When I registered for the classes, I asked them if there would be any problem because my name was still my male name and they told me that it would not be a problem, they said that they would add a note to my file. The first day of class the professors called my male name and I told them they I go by Diana, so much for passing along note (sic). In all the classes I went by Diana, when I handed in my homework assignments or taking exams and when I did transition, the school changed my records. In class on the first day we introduced ourselves, most of the students received their bachelors within 10 years and their degree were in the humanities and when it came to my turn I said, that I got my bachelor degree 34 years ago in engineering. Talk about the square peg in a round hole.

At work, no one could understand why I was taking classes in social work. I told them that I wanted to help people once I retired, however, I couldn’t tell them the whole reason why because I was still closeted and no one at work knew that I was trans except HR. When they closed down the factory and I was laid off they gave us tuition allowance and I latter found out that I was the only one of the 60 employees to take advantage of the allowance.

I will graduate in May and I think that going back to school was the best thing that I ever did in life. It has built my self-esteem and confidence, it has giving me a purpose in living, it has help me in my transition and it was fun. Sure I bitch and moan about homework and exams, but I really enjoy the classroom discussion and the other students, I will miss them.

Well I have to start to think what I’m going to wear for my first day of class.