Redo On My Closet Status

So, yesterday I had my Contemporary College Students course. During class, the professor asked us to list the sub-categories of the student population that we identified with when we were undergraduates. Since it has only been six years since I graduated, I was able to easily recollect how I sub-categorized myself. I listed the following:

Male

Asian

Catholic

Closeted LGBT

Greek Lettered

Honors Student
Student Leader

Once we listed our sub-categories, we had a class discussion on some of the sub-categories that we came up with. After lengthy conversations, the professor asked us a hypothetical question; “If we could do our undergraduate years over again, would we change any one of our sub-categories we identified with, and why.”

For myself, I immediately know that I would change one of the sub-categories that I had identified with. I would identify with the LGBT sub-population.

I reflected on why I selected that as my “redo” sub-category. As an undergraduate, I was afraid to identify with LGBT community because of stereotypes, family expectations, and simply a general fear of being different. It took me the length of college and a couple years after to come to terms with who I am and be able to identify with the LGBT community.

Now, I’m not sure if I would have come out sooner if there was more staff support and resources at my undergraduate institution. However, with that frame of mind, it dawned on me that even though as a Student Affairs professional I am working with the students through the various theories to help them identify and learn who they are, they still may not be able to come to any final and honest conclusion. So rather than being able to say that because a student was able to identify themselves by the end of their tenure at their respective university, perhaps a more realistic and purposeful way to measure success is whether the student learned the processes of identifying categories themselves so that whenever in life they encounter a point when they need to re-define themselves they will be able to do so purposefully and effectively.

So at this point in time I think I’m going to run with this mind set. A mind set of students learning the processes of identifying themselves and allowing them to use that knowledge when they are ready and able whether while in college or after. Perhaps I'm coming late to the party, on this mind frame, however, needless to say, I’m going to be very interested in this class and look forward to how it will change and improve my perspective on student development.