I would like to open up and fill you in with a bit more detail and honesty about my recent dismissal as an instructor, and why I have such a hard time with a strict dress code, despite my Love for teaching.🤍

While I stand by my practical objections but they don’t speak to why I am personally uncomfortable with being told what clothes to put on.

Let me start by saying that I love teaching. Getting to share my passion for our trade, helping others learn to navigate the nuances of the code, all the applied math, as well as so much more.

When I was asked to give teaching a try, I said yes before I knew it was a paid gig, I literally thought I would be volunteering my time. This school had done well by me and I would do some good in turn.

I was so excited for the chance to build upon what and how I was taught, to hopefully leave a positive mark upon the lives of some apprentices and the school itself. I put everything I had into teaching.

In my short time as an instructor, two years and three classes, I would say I had at least some success with this regard.

I thought I’d open up and offer bit more detail and honesty about myself, and somethings I have gone/ been going through.

Clothing, being told what to wear, dressing to please others, has long been a major point of stress for me.

Conforming to please others has never left me happy.

However, doing my own thing has often been met with resistance. From simple “teasing” through to assault leaving me with bones broken. I was, in the words of Henley, “bloodied, but unbowed”

I am transgender, a non-binary woman. The name I have been using is Nova and my preferred pronouns are she/they. The operative word, “preferred”. Do with that what you will, call me what you like, just wanted to get this out there.

So while there might not be a stress free solution for me, I will however continue to try to live and express myself in a way that I find to be comfortable and authentic, and where possible, with less stress.

The skilled trades are not exactly known to be welcoming to anyone different. I certainly felt it both in the field and at times even in the classroom. It wasn’t personal. Reentering the trade was met with just enough opposition and “unkind” words that, while less remarkable than some of own past traumas, still, I found it enough to feel the need to dial myself back. Focus on the work.

Live to fight another day.

Prove yourself, then you can have the space to make change.

I did.

While challenging this policy, I was asked, repeatedly: “What makes you so special?”

Nothing, I am nothing if not a little broken. I love teaching, yet when faced with the anxiety I felt the moment I heard about this policy, it hasn’t felt exactly like a choice for me to fight it, even at the cost of losing something I cared deeply for.

My time as an instructor may now be over, and I am not entirely sure where things go from here, but the intention remains unchanged.

Try and make it so that those who come after you, will not face the same obstacles. Or to at least put some mark or dent upon those hurdles. Such that the next scaling or passing is a bit easier.

I don’t know where all this will take me, perpetually figuring things out.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Please reach out to talk if you have any thoughts, questions, concerns.

Best,

Nova

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