my path in three minutes

Yesterday, we had a staff meeting at my internship, first with just the house staff and then with the house staff and the case managers.  During the house staff portion, we did a team building exercise where we were supposed to tell what influences we had in our life that led us to do this job.  Obviously mine was different because I was assigned to the agency by the MSW program but I still participated.

I was a bit nervous about it but I decided that I'd like to have the opportunity to come out to them without making a production out of it and this was the perfect time.  I thought back to last year when I came out to my class.  It was nerve-racking and I thought I'd probably lose some potential friendships back then but it ended up being really positive.  So I went for it.  Being gay isn't a focal point in my path but it is an integral part of how I see myself and I thought that I should share that if I was going to be honest with these people.  And it paid off.

I ended up talking for four minutes, not only coming out but just gibber-jabbering, about everything from calling my mom and saying that I think I should just return to Nebraska after not finding work here in the first three weeks to taking a promotion at work as an assistant manager in order to pay for Dean's teeth cleaning.  I didn't get any feedback yesterday but my new favorite co-worker Dave told me that he really appreciated my willingness to be open.  He didn't specifically discuss the coming out part but that was the subtext of his compliment.  Not only did I feel the level of comfort increase with him but also other co-workers seemed to really relax around me and I felt more comfortable with them based upon their three minute stories.  I guess that's a great tip-of-the-hat to the team building exercise.

When I thought about it later, I realized what I was wearing (the outfit in the picture above) and realized that it probably wasn't necessary for me to have to tell them I'm gay. :)

What else?
My new thing today was eating a goat cheese salad.  I have a recently developed appreciation for goat cheese!

Today is Glee on Hulu day (otherwise known as Wednesday).  The show was all about bullying in high school and it specifically and honestly address people getting bullied because of their sexuality.  I love that show.