Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Shauna Marie has retired from the News Staff. Many thanks Shauna for all your contributions to the News Forum!

Z

Please till me you are not leaving, Shauna.

I imagine that life and school is taking a lot of your time.


Janet

No, I am not leaving, Janet.  It is a question of time and energy - or rather the lack of both.

There are new adventures in the works. 

I have joined the speakers bureau of the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley.  This will give me a chance to tell our story.  The more we are understood, the faster the transgender community will be accepted.

I have submitted 2 presentation proposals for the Northeast LGBT Conference that will be held at Univ of Buffalo this upcoming April. One is a book talk on my autobiography.  The other is what centered on the challenges I faceed as a public school teacher transitioning in the workplace. http://www.nelgbtc.com/ (http://www.nelgbtc.com/)

I am also trying to put together a plan to do more book-talks.

I am singing with the Rochester Women's Community Chorus and would like to become...involved...with another woman in the chorus.  ;) 

On top of this, I am still teaching full time and working at my local Wegmans 1/2 time.

As you can tell, the plate is starting to overflow once again.  This time, instead of trying to pick up the pieces of my life, I am planning a future - a new future.

Some of us are home-bodies.  We live in one place - one home - most of our life.  Some of us are wandering troubadours.  Pilgrims being lead forth by a drive we cannot define.  And, yet, it burns true within us.

I am such a pilgrim.

I have always described my life as a journey - a voyage across the seas.  My woman's intuition is telling me that its time to leave the pier once again.  Time to set the Defiant's bow towards the open waters. 

Rule 39: A ship in harbor is safe – but that is not what ships are built for. – John A. Shedd

A song I wrote 30 years ago sums it all up.

Shauna
Captain of the Defiant.  Captain of my life.



Raising Sail

Let go the port side moorings! 
Let's make sail into the night!
Set our course there on that Second Star,
hold her there 'til dawn's first light
   And we're raising sail, heading out to sea.
   Going home to where I belong.
   Looking back on those years I spent on shore, I'm asking
   Why did I ever leave the sea?

To watch the sails fill still stirs my heart. 
Feel the waves go rolling by.
The salt air tastes so sweet to me. 
Hear the seagull shout its cry
   And we're raising sail, heading out to sea.
   Going home to where I belong.
   Looking back on those years I spent ashore, Were they real?
   Or just a sailor's dream?

It feels so good to be back onboard, back again, with my first love
The first mate says "It's good to see you home, but, please tell me, why to the sea?

         Late at night lying in my lover's arms.
         Thought I was as happy as could be.
         But in my dreams, every once in a while I swear,
         I'd hear my mistress cry for me!
         Oo – Oh!  Oo – Oh!
         "Where can you be?" she'd say to me.
         Oo – Oh!  Oo – Oh!

She looked up at me from the pier. 
I looked down from my Bridge.
The look in her eye said that she knew the truth that
She had lost me to the sea.

   And we've raised our sails.  Back in open sea
   Watchin' the stars fade with the dawn.
   Looking ahead, I know I'll never leave.
   This ship is all the home I'll ever need.
   Crossing the waves sailing free.
   With my mistress, the Sea!

I am so glad Shauna.  So many of those I have looked up to are moving on with their lives, as it should be.

And I have yet to read your book, but I will when I can afford to get it.  ;D 

Janet

Shuana looks like you have a lot of positive things going on. Congratulations!
Myles

Thank you for all the hard work Shauna! :icon_flower:

..and good luck with your new ventures.. :icon_wink:

:icon_hug:

Chrissty

Yes, Shauna: Thank you! I hope your adventures go well.

Good for you Shauna, not for retiring but for having the courage to go out there and try to make the world a better place.  We need more like you out there.  :eusa_clap:

Julie

It is amazing how many of our members have progressed so far in the 3 1/2 years I've been here. It is always sad to see people moving on, yet it is a celebration, too, and many find that they just can't stay away from the place and the people who have helped them along the way.

And Shauna is one of those young ones, full of energy, who are replacing us oldtimers on the front lines of freedom. Go get'em, girl.

Robyn, sipping on a mai tai

Good luck with the new adventures
Shauna Marie, it's great to encounter US folk on this board, I hail from Sydney, Australia.

All the best :) xox