Personal Narrative: A Career In Social Work

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Pages: 4

Helping others has always been a desire of mine since I was young. A great influencer of this passion of mine would be my dear old stepdad, Craig Gillis, or as he would like to be referred to as, Graig. After graduating from Governors state he went on to pursue a career in social work. Even as a young child I still remember him jumping up in the middle of the night because of a phone call from a child in distress. He would return home early in the morning just in time to walk me to school. Behind his brown wired glasses dark circles hung under his sleep deprived eyes while frustration and exhaustion constructed lines on his face. As the years went on he climbed up the ladder of his job, even being transferred to a new company. Within that company …show more content…
I sat back and watched as he told the person everything that needed to be done, or at least tried to. I could tell the person on the other end of the phone was giving him a hard time. He rubbed his left hand over his face in frustration, pushing up his navy blue rimmed glasses in the process. After five exhausting minutes of discussion the said person finally complied. “Jeez, are they always like that? Is this not their job?” I huffed out slightly irritated. “Not always. You just have to know how to work with people like that. You cannot be too assertive, otherwise they will feel attacked. If I smile, listen and push just enough, then they will do it.” He stated while clicking away on his computer. “So do you find it challenging being the only black male in the office and or company?” I asked. “Being black is not the challenge. It is being a male. Gender and stereotypes are the first barriers to get through. Women are predominant in this workforce. I had to learn how to be professional while being a single man. It is way different now than twenty years ago.” I raised an eyebrow at his statement. “Not like that Cheyenne. While all my coworkers were chatting about their husbands and family, I could not relate. I did not have kids. I was going out on the weekends not attending children sporting events.” He corrected. I nodded and snickered, moving