I have a life update: I'm going to grad school in the fall!
I'll be working toward a Master's in Social Work at West Chester University. After graduation, I plan to do work of some kind for the LGBTQIA+ population. I'm not sure what shape that may take, though a therapeutic practice is one option I'm mulling over. That's for the future.
Why change now, this late in life?
The answer I've been giving when asked this question has many parts.
I've found over the past decade that I've become very, very interested in people. I mean, I know, we all are, right? But since getting sober nine years ago and then starting to come out as trans a year later, and then transitioning during pandemic, I've had lots of one on one conversations with people in crisis, whether it be grappling with sobriety, gender identity, sexuality, isolation, or depression, as I went through my own crises.
I became very good at interpersonal work and helping people, especially queer people, especially trans people.
It wasn't until my friend Judy turned me on to working as a peer counselor at William Way that I began to understand that I could have this kind of experience inside a boundaried framework that was more sustainable and healthy for me. I started working as a peer counselor two years ago. And at William Way I began to learn what one aspect of social work can look like - connecting people with resources, talking through practical problems, lending a non-judgmental ear, being an advocate.
Last winter Andi mentioned that I would make a good therapist, and something clicked in me, and within a month I was researching schools.
So here we are, seven months later. I'm hoping to come out of this program equipped with tools and practices that I can use to help people. In the current political climate, as more and more wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few, as rights are stripped from women, from Black and brown people, from trans people, from immigrants, it seems like the right thing to do with my time as I move into my 60s.
Nearly all of us in the arts have other jobs. These jobs to some extent influence the trajectory of our lives. I know artists who work as educators, graphic designers, doctors, construction workers, museum staff, you name it.
I've been a FileMaker developer since 1998. My 28 year run doing one thing has been good to me, and isn't over, since I will still be doing software dev part-time at my current place of employment (FullCity Consulting, a great firm, by the way, if you're looking for custom software).
I don't know what the future holds. Social work is also practiced at the organizational and governmental level. Information plays a role there, and I have a unique set of skills. I lean toward one-on-one connection, but there's work to do elsewhere, too. We'll see.
As for art, I have been somewhat disconnected with my practice but I hope to fold creative life back in, perhaps later this fall. Andi and I have restarted Mount Airy Contemporary’s main gallery program and I'm really enjoying that.
Colleen