{"id":5135,"date":"2021-06-22T07:57:59","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T14:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=5135"},"modified":"2021-06-22T07:57:59","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T14:57:59","slug":"it-is-never-too-late","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/it-is-never-too-late\/","title":{"rendered":"It is Never Too Late!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost exactly a year ago, I came out as a Transgender Woman<\/a><\/span>. Based on my experience, I believe it is a lot more difficult to come out later in life, especially\u00a0to your spouse\u00a0on\u00a0the same year you celebrate\u00a0your 25th<\/sup>\u00a0wedding anniversary!\u00a0Luckily, the\u00a0reception I received has been\u00a0incredible and\u00a0mostly\u00a0positive.\u00a0However, not 100%\u202fpositive\u2026 Although,\u00a0I never expected that everyone<\/em>\u202fwould accept my transition.<\/p>\n

Not everyone in our lives will react well\u00a0to a situation like this. Mainly because\u202fof how this change may impact their lives,\u202fvalues,\u202fbeliefs,\u202fand morals.\u202fIn fact, some\u202ffamily members\u202fand friends have stopped talking to me or distanced themselves from my\u202fimmediate\u202ffamily because of my\u202fcoming out.\u00a0Of course, it hurts, but I\u202fdo not\u202flet that stop me from finally\u202fbeing\u00a0me.<\/p>\n

Coming out is not an overnight process.\u00a0I\u00a0did not\u00a0just wake up one day and\u00a0decide\u00a0that\u00a0I would try and see what\u00a0it would be\u00a0like to be a woman.\u00a0I\u00a0have known almost all my life that I\u00a0am transgender, and I even attempted to transition multiple times \u2013 only to be derailed by a\u00a0lack of\u00a0the financial resources required to do so,\u00a0a lack of\u00a0transgender\u00a0awareness around me,\u00a0and\u00a0for fear of not being accepted\u00a0by society, co-workers, friends, and family.<\/p>\n

When I finally did come out,\u00a0I was\u00a0still\u00a0afraid.\u00a0But I could not\u00a0pretend\u00a0to be someone\u00a0that I no longer was. Today, rather than\u00a0allowing the fear of being\u00a0ridiculed stand in my way,\u00a0I go out into the world with\u00a0my head held high and\u00a0be exactly who I am \u2013 Laura!<\/p>\n

I was\u00a0especially\u00a0afraid about coming out at work for fear of rejection\u00a0\u2013\u00a0not due to any personal experiences or\u00a0observations of discrimination at work, but due to a self-inflicted apprehension.\u00a0Those fears were immediately assuaged after\u00a0my\u00a0meeting with\u00a0Poly\u2019s Chief Human Resources Officer to let her know of my plans to come out at Poly as transgender.\u00a0She\u00a0reassured me that\u00a0she\u00a0and her staff would do everything possible to make my transition at work as smooth as possible \u2013 and she\u00a0did!<\/p>\n

The\u00a0HR\u00a0staff,\u00a0our CIO, my manager,\u00a0and so many others have helped\u00a0to make\u00a0my transition\u00a0at Poly an amazing experience.\u00a0Poly made my transition at work much easier with their inclusive policies and practices. These included the designation of gender-neutral bathrooms in the office, offering global inclusivity and diversity programs, medical insurance options that include coverage for gender-identity specific procedures, employee resource groups such as LGBTQ+, webinars on topics pertaining to allyship, diversity and inclusion; and most importantly, a management team that proactively<\/em> cultivates a supportive work environment.<\/p>\n

Based on my experience, being\u00a0my authentic self is liberating, rewarding, and empowering. It has given me a renewed sense of purpose and\u202ffulfillment and I am finally presenting the real\u202fme,\u202frather than the person I have\u202fpretended to be for decades.\u202fNow, I am proud of who I am\u202fand I am living every second of my life to the fullest.\u00a0My experience is proof that it\u00a0is never too late to live your life as your true self!<\/p>\n

To my entire\u202fextended Poly family, please accept\u202fmy heartfelt thanks\u202ffor your support and encouragement;\u202ffor\u202fyour love, for\u202fdemonstrating empathy, integrity, and\u202fcompassion.\u202fThank you for embracing diversity, inclusivity and above all,\u202fthank you for\u202fyour\u202fhumanity!<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Laura Castillo<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cBe yourself; everyone else is already taken\u201d -\u202fOscar Wilde<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost exactly a year ago, I came out as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":5138,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[524,525,526],"tags":[2010,378,2011],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5135"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}