First gig worries
Hey all, not sure if this is the right place to talk about this but I’d like some input. I start my first seasonal job on Friday (photographer/wrangler at a dude ranch), however as it draws closers I’m having some serious worries due to a couple of factors:
- I am a stealth trans man (on HRT/post-op), and I know the equine industry can be pretty rough for queer folk from experience. A lot of my coworkers will be on the conservative side (as gleaned from past employee reviews), and I’m worried I might be getting into a dangerous situation here due to the bunkhouse-style housing (boss had no issues with it, but not sure about who I’ll be directly working with). Initially I was pretty confident I could maintain my privacy but I am having some second thoughts especially now that it’s becoming much more real. The town itself and the guests are pretty LGBTQ friendly, but not so much the majority of the ranch staff.
- Outside of general (yet pretty severe) moving anxiety, I recently graduated college and am worried I am “wasting“ what could’ve been my last summer in my college town. I didn’t have a particularly great time, especially this last semester, but it was familiar. I left two stable jobs, my friends, family, and ESA (which is a whole factor in itself) to work for a couple months, and I will be giving up a lot of my free time (that I worry I will never have again). I will also be moving in with my best friend of nearly a decade to a town pretty close to where this job is during the fall anyway, this gig just moved my timeline up in a way I wasn’t especially prepared for.
My current plan is to just give it a try (because I know I’d kick myself forever if I didn’t!), but I was wondering if anyone had advice on how to navigate this, or if there were any other queer wranglers out there who‘d be willing to share their experience? Job wise I have very little worries lol, I love working with horses and combining that with photography is a dream. I’m prepared for the hard labor and long hours, it’s just the outside factors that are starting to weigh on me.