I hear you, I really do, on a lot of levels. I honestly think that we provide good examples to show you. Don’t take Sera’s word for it though, or mine, come and see the work that we are doing if you are skeptical. I’m not sure if you are still in Massachusetts but if you are or if you are close I hope that you can come and spend some time in our community. I’m not from Western Mass, I’m from the Boston area and I moved here knowing no one and having really sort of nothing. It’s a weird place, I’m not sure if you’ve been here. It feels like the damned boonies to me. I miss the city. I want to go home. And yet, how can I leave this community? This place is like nothing that exists anywhere else. And I’ve seen other places! Not just here in Massachusetts but all over and nothing looks like this. And it isn’t perfect! It isn’t perfect but it’s real and it works for a lot of people. It’s like this oasis out in this strange place. I feel lucky all of the time to be part of this community. I can’t imagine it not continuing to grow and thrive the way that it has in the almost 3 years that I have been here.
I don’t have a certification. I don’t have any degrees. These things matter to so many people in so many places. I know so well how people don’t listen to me for these reasons. I am aware of that and I also don’t care. I am a college drop out and I am a Certified Peer Specialist drop out. I am also the team coordinator at this amazing place called Afiya. I also chose to become an Intentional Peer Support trainer, something that isn’t the certification that DMH wants (CPS) but is something that I personally believe in wholeheartedly. It was a choice and not something forced upon me. Yes, DMH wants CPS and so do a lot of other places I am sure.
I will not go so far as to say that cutting the training out is the answer, there are so many valid trainings out there that I have chosen to go through and that are not required but that really help to be able to support so many different sorts of folks. Some examples that I feel that I have benefited from are Hearing Voices, Alternatives to Suicide and Intentional Peer Support. I have experiences with hearing voices and feelings of suicide but that isn’t always enough. I believe that valuable trainings plus your own experiences support you to be solid in your role as a “peer” (I don’t like that term) advocate.
Also, I don’t believe that most of us here cut down on the activism piece! I believe you that a lot of places do but we aren’t a lot of places. Some of us are pretty radical! If you want to make a difference in the world, I say go for it! I hope that you find the right community to join up with or that you strike out on your own and succeed with that! It’s a noble cause! I believe that we are doing just that here and I hope that we can always continue to do so!
Wow! Olga this is truly beautifully written! Congratulations to you on living your life the way that you see it and not someone else’s vision of it. You are very inspirational and I really do hope that we cross paths one day.
Thanks for writing here and sharing part of your story and journey. As a former sex worker I am very interested in other sex worker’s experiences, sex worker’s rights in general (or shall we just say overall HUMAN rights for all) and would be very interested in reading your story in book format. I will have to order a copy at some point. Glad to have found you here!
You have such a wonderful way with words and such a powerful story. I am still so moved by hearing your story via skype during my hearing voices facilitator’s training. Thank-you for sharing your story and for your openness and your intense bravery. I felt (and still feel) very honored to have heard it.
Thank-you so much for taking the time to read my story and to really fully process it and give me such amazing feedback. I read all of your blog posts and really admire your voice/writing. I feel so honored to have my story published on a page with so many amazing and brave humans. It is so inspiring to me on a daily basis.
Oh I love everything about it! Everything you said, the idea that all of our technology comes from those ideas, the huge diversity of all of the races, how cutting edge and ahead of it’s time it always was in regards to human issues, how I can actually let my kids watch it without worrying about the message they are getting, etc. Your Borg costume sounds amazing! I do have two Starfleet uniforms! My wife is a burlesque performer and she also recently did a performance as Jadzia Dax from Deep Space Nine. hahaha I will have to try that method with the next crappy health professional that I come across! 😉
Oh my goodness! That was probably one of the best comments ever! There should be a poll on how many folk dislike the mirror, I bet it would be the vast majority.
I want to say that I really really enjoy reading all of how comments on posts. You have a really great perspective.
Thank-you so much! I don’t mind you sharing that thought at all-I am honored to have someone think so!
I think that it’s quite alright to talk to one’s self, in mirrors or otherwise. I feel like probably most people do it, whether they admit to it or not! You and I just happened to publicly admit to it! 😉
I don’t think that your experience sounds strange. That sounds kind of incredible actually. I have many “strange”/interesting experiences that I hope to one day admit to – er, write about, eventually.
I remember you from Alternatives last year! I am “hoping” to be there again this year! You should definitely tell your story. I look forward to reading it if/when you do. Thanks for taking the time to read my post!
Thank-you for reading, Joanna! I am glad to have uplifted your spirits a little. I wasn’t feeling so great last night either and I was glad to read some words of support!
I love all of your blog posts but, this one and Body Politics (which really inspired me to actually share my own story) really struck a cord with me. Both are so brave and vulnerable. Our stories are so, so important. Thank-you for sharing some of yours. This story is so important for so many parents out there. There are so many topics out there that no one wants to talk but, they NEED to be talked about. I imagine it was really difficult to write this and harder still to post it for so many people to read. Thank-you for opening up a very important dialogue and for letting other folk know that they are not alone. I am sorry that you had to feel alone with this for so long. You are such an inspiration to me and I am honored to work alongside you and more importantly, to be your friend. Thank-you for all of the great work that you do and for being such a beautiful human being.
Thank-you, Deron! I am honored to know you and to call you my comrade. You are doing great work in Connecticut! You should be proud. I hope to see you for dinner again this month or in July. We all have so much to learn from each other and I am so grateful to be part of such a wonderful and inspiring community of folk like yourself who are so passionate about human rights and who are just downright amazing human beings!
Thank-you so much for your insight and kind words. My “hope” was that people may find themselves somewhere in my writing. We are all different, with different experiences but, we are all human. I have never really fully understood the terms “comrade” and “community” until I meeting all of you wonderful people. Thank-you for being part of my life.
Thank-you for your kind words of support, Suzi! This piece has been silently brewing in me for at least a year now. It took the right amount of support from others around me (you RLC kids!) to finally write it out. I think that we are all quite brave. I am honored to be around each and every person in the RLC <3
Thank-you so much, Sean. I am always so proud to have you as my comrade. I so admire the grace you exude when interacting with our fellow human beings (even when they are giving you hell), it is such a beautiful skill. I feel blessed to follow in you and Sera’s Western Mass RLC MIA blogger footsteps! You both inspire me so much. Thank-you for navigating the political landmine that is life with me most weeks! 😉
Thank-you so much for reading and for your lovely comment! I am overwhelmed (in a good way) by all of the beautiful words of support that I have received from strangers and friends alike. It feels good to be “seen”.
Wow, Greg, I am speechless! Thank-you, really. I try to walk through this world attracting as little attention as possible to myself. Sometimes I am oblivious to the fact that anyone notices me at all. I have heard so many beautiful things from so many amazing people in the past 24 hours. This was one of the nicest ones, thank-you. I am honored to be a part of this amazing community of people. I feel so fortunate to have found all of you and to feel less alone in this world. I look forward to seeing you again soon. Our revolution dinners are certainly a highlight of my month every month.
Thank-you! You are such an inspiration to me. I am so glad that we met and that I am able to see you as often as I do. I am honored to be your friend as well. I feel very fortunate to be among such brave folk, with such beautiful hearts and powerful stories.
Julie,
I hear you, I really do, on a lot of levels. I honestly think that we provide good examples to show you. Don’t take Sera’s word for it though, or mine, come and see the work that we are doing if you are skeptical. I’m not sure if you are still in Massachusetts but if you are or if you are close I hope that you can come and spend some time in our community. I’m not from Western Mass, I’m from the Boston area and I moved here knowing no one and having really sort of nothing. It’s a weird place, I’m not sure if you’ve been here. It feels like the damned boonies to me. I miss the city. I want to go home. And yet, how can I leave this community? This place is like nothing that exists anywhere else. And I’ve seen other places! Not just here in Massachusetts but all over and nothing looks like this. And it isn’t perfect! It isn’t perfect but it’s real and it works for a lot of people. It’s like this oasis out in this strange place. I feel lucky all of the time to be part of this community. I can’t imagine it not continuing to grow and thrive the way that it has in the almost 3 years that I have been here.
I don’t have a certification. I don’t have any degrees. These things matter to so many people in so many places. I know so well how people don’t listen to me for these reasons. I am aware of that and I also don’t care. I am a college drop out and I am a Certified Peer Specialist drop out. I am also the team coordinator at this amazing place called Afiya. I also chose to become an Intentional Peer Support trainer, something that isn’t the certification that DMH wants (CPS) but is something that I personally believe in wholeheartedly. It was a choice and not something forced upon me. Yes, DMH wants CPS and so do a lot of other places I am sure.
I will not go so far as to say that cutting the training out is the answer, there are so many valid trainings out there that I have chosen to go through and that are not required but that really help to be able to support so many different sorts of folks. Some examples that I feel that I have benefited from are Hearing Voices, Alternatives to Suicide and Intentional Peer Support. I have experiences with hearing voices and feelings of suicide but that isn’t always enough. I believe that valuable trainings plus your own experiences support you to be solid in your role as a “peer” (I don’t like that term) advocate.
Also, I don’t believe that most of us here cut down on the activism piece! I believe you that a lot of places do but we aren’t a lot of places. Some of us are pretty radical! If you want to make a difference in the world, I say go for it! I hope that you find the right community to join up with or that you strike out on your own and succeed with that! It’s a noble cause! I believe that we are doing just that here and I hope that we can always continue to do so!
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Wow! Olga this is truly beautifully written! Congratulations to you on living your life the way that you see it and not someone else’s vision of it. You are very inspirational and I really do hope that we cross paths one day.
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Thank-you, Olga! Nice to virtually meet you, hopefully one day it will also happen in person 🙂
-Wyatt
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Polly,
Thanks for writing here and sharing part of your story and journey. As a former sex worker I am very interested in other sex worker’s experiences, sex worker’s rights in general (or shall we just say overall HUMAN rights for all) and would be very interested in reading your story in book format. I will have to order a copy at some point. Glad to have found you here!
-Wyatt
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You have such a wonderful way with words and such a powerful story. I am still so moved by hearing your story via skype during my hearing voices facilitator’s training. Thank-you for sharing your story and for your openness and your intense bravery. I felt (and still feel) very honored to have heard it.
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Faith,
Thank-you so much for taking the time to read my story and to really fully process it and give me such amazing feedback. I read all of your blog posts and really admire your voice/writing. I feel so honored to have my story published on a page with so many amazing and brave humans. It is so inspiring to me on a daily basis.
-Wyatt
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What an amazing story, Stephen! I am totally going to netflix that now!
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That sounds amazing! I am going to start having fantasies about that now too.
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I have been on hormones for a long time and understand about fat distribution changes etc. I am wondering if you missed the point of my blog post?
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Oh I love everything about it! Everything you said, the idea that all of our technology comes from those ideas, the huge diversity of all of the races, how cutting edge and ahead of it’s time it always was in regards to human issues, how I can actually let my kids watch it without worrying about the message they are getting, etc. Your Borg costume sounds amazing! I do have two Starfleet uniforms! My wife is a burlesque performer and she also recently did a performance as Jadzia Dax from Deep Space Nine. hahaha I will have to try that method with the next crappy health professional that I come across! 😉
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I can definitely identify with that feeling, Jim!
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I definitely agree with that sentiment. I could definitely see that. Oh you got me, I am a huge Star Trek nerd!
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Oh my goodness! That was probably one of the best comments ever! There should be a poll on how many folk dislike the mirror, I bet it would be the vast majority.
I want to say that I really really enjoy reading all of how comments on posts. You have a really great perspective.
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Thank-you so much! I don’t mind you sharing that thought at all-I am honored to have someone think so!
I think that it’s quite alright to talk to one’s self, in mirrors or otherwise. I feel like probably most people do it, whether they admit to it or not! You and I just happened to publicly admit to it! 😉
I don’t think that your experience sounds strange. That sounds kind of incredible actually. I have many “strange”/interesting experiences that I hope to one day admit to – er, write about, eventually.
Thanks for reading and for sharing!
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Jim,
I remember you from Alternatives last year! I am “hoping” to be there again this year! You should definitely tell your story. I look forward to reading it if/when you do. Thanks for taking the time to read my post!
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Thank-you for reading, Joanna! I am glad to have uplifted your spirits a little. I wasn’t feeling so great last night either and I was glad to read some words of support!
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Thank-you, Richard! I was struggling to find the words that you so eloquently articulated here.
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Sera,
I love all of your blog posts but, this one and Body Politics (which really inspired me to actually share my own story) really struck a cord with me. Both are so brave and vulnerable. Our stories are so, so important. Thank-you for sharing some of yours. This story is so important for so many parents out there. There are so many topics out there that no one wants to talk but, they NEED to be talked about. I imagine it was really difficult to write this and harder still to post it for so many people to read. Thank-you for opening up a very important dialogue and for letting other folk know that they are not alone. I am sorry that you had to feel alone with this for so long. You are such an inspiration to me and I am honored to work alongside you and more importantly, to be your friend. Thank-you for all of the great work that you do and for being such a beautiful human being.
Love,
Wyatt
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Thank-you, Deron! I am honored to know you and to call you my comrade. You are doing great work in Connecticut! You should be proud. I hope to see you for dinner again this month or in July. We all have so much to learn from each other and I am so grateful to be part of such a wonderful and inspiring community of folk like yourself who are so passionate about human rights and who are just downright amazing human beings!
Report comment
Richard,
Thank-you so much for your insight and kind words. My “hope” was that people may find themselves somewhere in my writing. We are all different, with different experiences but, we are all human. I have never really fully understood the terms “comrade” and “community” until I meeting all of you wonderful people. Thank-you for being part of my life.
Report comment
Thank-you for your kind words of support, Suzi! This piece has been silently brewing in me for at least a year now. It took the right amount of support from others around me (you RLC kids!) to finally write it out. I think that we are all quite brave. I am honored to be around each and every person in the RLC <3
Report comment
Thank-you so much, Sean. I am always so proud to have you as my comrade. I so admire the grace you exude when interacting with our fellow human beings (even when they are giving you hell), it is such a beautiful skill. I feel blessed to follow in you and Sera’s Western Mass RLC MIA blogger footsteps! You both inspire me so much. Thank-you for navigating the political landmine that is life with me most weeks! 😉
Report comment
Thank-you so much for reading and for your lovely comment! I am overwhelmed (in a good way) by all of the beautiful words of support that I have received from strangers and friends alike. It feels good to be “seen”.
Report comment
Wow, Greg, I am speechless! Thank-you, really. I try to walk through this world attracting as little attention as possible to myself. Sometimes I am oblivious to the fact that anyone notices me at all. I have heard so many beautiful things from so many amazing people in the past 24 hours. This was one of the nicest ones, thank-you. I am honored to be a part of this amazing community of people. I feel so fortunate to have found all of you and to feel less alone in this world. I look forward to seeing you again soon. Our revolution dinners are certainly a highlight of my month every month.
Report comment
Dorothy,
Thank-you! You are such an inspiration to me. I am so glad that we met and that I am able to see you as often as I do. I am honored to be your friend as well. I feel very fortunate to be among such brave folk, with such beautiful hearts and powerful stories.
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Thank-you so much for reading it!
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Thank-you, Sera! It was a LONG time coming and I am glad that it is finally finished and posted!
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Thank-you so much, sir! Thank-you also for proofreading it and for bearing witness to all of my anxiety during it’s creation.
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