Growth in Resilience - Fall 2024

Back to Dispositions

From all our identity and self-care work we’ve been assigned this quarter, I’ve come to realize how rare certain supports are, specifically for queer men of color. Since beginning the MiT program, I’ve found and joined the affinity groups called The Martinez Fellowship for BIPOC support, and The Gay Men’s Brotherhood for queer men’s support. But as far as I’ve looked, I haven’t been able to find affinity groups that offer support for the intersection of these identities. Some of us queer members in the Martinez Fellowship informally banded together, but (even though they have been very safe and accommodating) queerness and its intersection with BIPOC issues isn’t really discussed or featured, since it’s not a defining characteristic of the fellowship.

Part of the difficulties I encountered this quarter were severe bouts of depression, especially from lack of supports in my personal life, recovering from abuse, starting life over, etc., as well as the ever-growing realization that my combination of identities is of the more statistically rare varieties of people in the world. 

All of these reflections and efforts to thrive have made me value my queer therapist of color. I have been working through very difficult issues in periphery to this program. Moving forward, I am dealing with the hard truth that these life situations create a greater workload, and that it will be an ongoing effort to find balance as an educator, especially when it comes to extra duties—like the expectation to run a GSA club. I’m searching for the line between the reality of extra effort for my communities, and not becoming a “marginalized martyr”. 

Resilience is an area I’ve made great strides in, but can always make even more progress. Because my journaling is too personal to share, I have included my Conclusion and Epilogue slides from an interaction plan I conducted for Childhood and Adolescent Development. It is a prime example of how although I am doing extra work to advocate for my identity-communities, I am also doing in-depth, academic and personal work to serve and advocate for students within the dominant culture as well.