There are times when your life takes a turn, and you can look back and see how a single word changed everything.
The first turn:
I had been seeing the handwriting on the wall. When you work for a company that is going down the tubes, you can see it coming. My boss, the head engineer, was leaving, so I gave him my resume. For nearly the next 30 years, I worked at that next company—until it was sold, and the new buyers didn't want us.
The second turn:
In 2006, we were heading back from a hearing on the gender-inclusive non-discrimination bill, and we all went out to eat at the Wood & Tap in Hartford. There was Jerimarie, Amy, and one other person. I mentioned that they were closing the company where I worked and that I was looking for a career change. Amy suggested social work. I said, "I’m not a people person. I couldn't just sit there and listen to other people's problems, I’d be right there crying with them!"
Amy replied that she was a social worker... a community organizer.
In 2007, I was laid off and I transitioned!
A couple of days later, I was picking up the mail for a support group that I ran, and there was a flyer from the University of Connecticut’s School of Social Work. It described a program where you could take non-matriculated classes; if you did well and liked it, you could transfer your credits over to a degree program.
In 2011—the very same year the gender-inclusive non-discrimination law was passed—I got my MSW.
The first turn:
I had been seeing the handwriting on the wall. When you work for a company that is going down the tubes, you can see it coming. My boss, the head engineer, was leaving, so I gave him my resume. For nearly the next 30 years, I worked at that next company—until it was sold, and the new buyers didn't want us.
The second turn:
In 2006, we were heading back from a hearing on the gender-inclusive non-discrimination bill, and we all went out to eat at the Wood & Tap in Hartford. There was Jerimarie, Amy, and one other person. I mentioned that they were closing the company where I worked and that I was looking for a career change. Amy suggested social work. I said, "I’m not a people person. I couldn't just sit there and listen to other people's problems, I’d be right there crying with them!"
Amy replied that she was a social worker... a community organizer.
In 2007, I was laid off and I transitioned!
A couple of days later, I was picking up the mail for a support group that I ran, and there was a flyer from the University of Connecticut’s School of Social Work. It described a program where you could take non-matriculated classes; if you did well and liked it, you could transfer your credits over to a degree program.
In 2011—the very same year the gender-inclusive non-discrimination law was passed—I got my MSW.
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