Speak Your Truth

As my fellow bloggers and I were waiting for the Janine Latus presentation that bestlittlelion92 talked about, I began a discussion with my fellow seniors about something that is plaguing all our minds….job applications.  We are all fretting about resumes and Linked-In accounts and cover letters and all those other about to graduate and we need a job nuances.  I couldn’t help but bring up a topic that had been desperately nagging on my mind, “What should I put on my resume? And how much is too much?”  I pose this question to two of the fellow bloggers and they each took a rational side, one that I had been internally battling between like Serena Williams playing tennis against herself.  One blogger promoted the idea of restraint and the other the idea to just lay it out on the table.  Each one had valid points and there was logic behind their ideas, but in the end I found resolution not with their convincing; my epiphany came from the Janine Latus and Audre Lorde.

I have always been cautious about what I put on my resume and Linked-In page, do I add my work with LGBT organizations?  Do I talk about my leadership roles in heavily feminist groups?  Do I add a paper that I am most proud of that rips apart how our society is structured?  Or, in my own self-interest do I leave it all out?  Keep everything as vague as possible, allude to the ideas but never actually touch them.  Should I instead put them in the back of my trophy case rather than showing them off bright and shiny in front?  This mentality was encouraged by every professional that I encountered at the Communication Studies Career Workshop last year.  Every time I posed the question of, “What should you do if something your passionate about is a bit political or looked down upon?”  And each and every person told me to hide it, save that for my personal volunteer work, showcase other qualities.  And I swallowed that pill because, they were professionals right?  They would know what’s best, and with this job market I can use all the advantages that I could get.  This sentiment was encouraged by a fellow blogger when they told me that they don’t share all their ShoutOut! posts on their Facebook anymore, that they are more reserved in the public atmosphere.  I understand it all you don’t want to ostracize your potential coworker; you don’t want to have to weaken your chance of getting a job just because your views may not align with those of the company.  It makes sense to keep things that could rock the boat quiet, to keep that within your personal time.

But, wait…why should I have to?  And what am I standing for by doing so?  The other blogger spoke of how she just put everything on her resume and companies can hire her or not.  We can all agree that we wouldn’t want to work for a company that didn’t support our fundamental beliefs anyway right? Right!  So, why was I still hesitant to add certain parts of my internship onto Linked-In?  Why do I still shy away from highlighting my feminist work if I’m not applying to a feminist friendly platform?  The obvious answer is that I’m scared, scared that people won’t take me seriously, scared that I will be judged, like it or not I still have an inner patriarchal voice trying to quiet my feminist one.  But the first step to recovery is acceptance right?  It was Janine Latus presentation that reminded me of myself, she spoke of how we have to tell our truth because if we don’t who will?  If we are too scared to stand up for ourselves no one is going to do it for us, no one will know what we have been through if we don’t tell our stories.  I thought that I could make a bigger change, get a better job, if I kept silent about certain activities, but Audre Lorde in “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action” reminded me that, “Your silence will not protect you” and “I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood. That the speaking profits me, beyond any other effect.”

So call this my renewal of self, of faith, of aligning my words, thoughts, and actions so that I can live as authentically as possible.  I will no longer be afraid to fly my feminist flag whether it’s in person, on Linked-In, or on my resume.  I will not be silenced or told to calm down.  And if an employer doesn’t like it, well, I don’t want to work for them anyway!

Tell me readers have there been times where you’ve kept silent against your better judgment?  Do you think that there are situations where we should be silent?  Or should we always be loud and proud?  Let me know in the comments!