It all started when the company announced the factory was shutting down (You know just like GM now), I was going to take an early retirement but then they announced the shutdown and one of the options they offered us was an option for early retirement.
When I was planning on retiring I knew that I wanted something to do in retirement so I did research and asked some friends about what I should do in retirement.
So I asked JL and her wife AS and they said to get my MSW, I said that I’m not a people person.
I asked CM who is a LCSW (which I didn’t know about then) what should I do in retirement and she said get your MSW…but I’m not a people person I would sitting there crying along with the client, I have too much empathy.
At a meeting of the Anti-Discrimination Coalition I asked AM and LB and they said get a MSW and I said… but I’m not a people person and they said not all social workers are clinicians that they were macro social workers like them. Hmm…
When I got the Connecticut Outreach Society’s mail there was flyer in the mail from UConn School of Social Work about a program called STEP that allows you audit courses in social work and if you do good and apply for the MSW.
Then the company announced the shutdown in early September and one of the parachutes they offered was tuition reimbursement… Hmm, where was that flyer on social work.
So I talked it over with HR (I had come out to her in early spring) and she thought it an excellent idea so I registered for the STEP program and started to take classes in the spring semester. Of the two classes that I registered for I got an A and a B- and I talked to the professor in the class that I got the B- (that was my lowest grade that I got in the MSW program, all the other grades were A or A-) and he said my low grade was because of grammar (no kidding Sherlock, I knew that my grammar was bad, I used to say “I are a ingineer”) and that I should have had the paper proofread. I didn’t know at the time that you could have someone proofread your papers.
Well grad school was one of the best moves that I made in my lifetime.
It opened the doors to so many opportunities, it allows me to attend meeting on issues that affect the trans community, it allows me to teach our culture and our needs to social workers, healthcare providers and future teachers.
This week I taught three classes for education majors both undergraduate and graduate students at two universities.
In January I am attending a planning meeting with the Connecticut Department on Aging to explain the needs of our community. In the past I sat on committees that developed the education guidelines for trans students.
I made many friends in grad school and I still keep in touch with, many of them are LCSW and one specializes in trans clients.
When I was in grad school my concentration was community organizing and one thing that I learned was the inside and outside approach to activism. But my age is creeping up on me and rallies are getting harder to attend because of health reasons so I am concentrating on the inside game.
I like electrical engineering, my undergraduate degree was a Bachelor of Electronic Technology and I ran an electronic test department for twenty-five years, I made good money and it allowed me to retire at 59 and to pursue social work.
I did well in both professions.
When I was planning on retiring I knew that I wanted something to do in retirement so I did research and asked some friends about what I should do in retirement.
So I asked JL and her wife AS and they said to get my MSW, I said that I’m not a people person.
I asked CM who is a LCSW (which I didn’t know about then) what should I do in retirement and she said get your MSW…but I’m not a people person I would sitting there crying along with the client, I have too much empathy.
At a meeting of the Anti-Discrimination Coalition I asked AM and LB and they said get a MSW and I said… but I’m not a people person and they said not all social workers are clinicians that they were macro social workers like them. Hmm…
When I got the Connecticut Outreach Society’s mail there was flyer in the mail from UConn School of Social Work about a program called STEP that allows you audit courses in social work and if you do good and apply for the MSW.
Then the company announced the shutdown in early September and one of the parachutes they offered was tuition reimbursement… Hmm, where was that flyer on social work.
So I talked it over with HR (I had come out to her in early spring) and she thought it an excellent idea so I registered for the STEP program and started to take classes in the spring semester. Of the two classes that I registered for I got an A and a B- and I talked to the professor in the class that I got the B- (that was my lowest grade that I got in the MSW program, all the other grades were A or A-) and he said my low grade was because of grammar (no kidding Sherlock, I knew that my grammar was bad, I used to say “I are a ingineer”) and that I should have had the paper proofread. I didn’t know at the time that you could have someone proofread your papers.
Well grad school was one of the best moves that I made in my lifetime.
This week I taught three classes for education majors both undergraduate and graduate students at two universities.
In January I am attending a planning meeting with the Connecticut Department on Aging to explain the needs of our community. In the past I sat on committees that developed the education guidelines for trans students.
I made many friends in grad school and I still keep in touch with, many of them are LCSW and one specializes in trans clients.
When I was in grad school my concentration was community organizing and one thing that I learned was the inside and outside approach to activism. But my age is creeping up on me and rallies are getting harder to attend because of health reasons so I am concentrating on the inside game.
I like electrical engineering, my undergraduate degree was a Bachelor of Electronic Technology and I ran an electronic test department for twenty-five years, I made good money and it allowed me to retire at 59 and to pursue social work.
I did well in both professions.
No comments:
Post a Comment