Written by Joanna Whiston – Have you ever tried to fit into a workplace that just doesn’t understand you? For me, that was my reality for 18 years.
For 18 years, I tried to blend in, to be like everyone else and to work out what the “normal” way to be was. I spent so much time trying to fit into different environmens that simply didn’t understand the way I thought, communicated or experienced the world.
Constantly adapting. Constantly second-guessing myself. Constantly wondering why things that seemed to come naturally to everyone else felt so difficult for me. Constantly breaking myself because I thought I if I was different I would be accepted.
Then came Crossroads.
For the first time, I began to understand what it felt like to be in a workplace where I didn’t have to pretend to be someone else.
A place where being different wasn’t something I needed to hide. Where I could ask questions, communicate differently, have difficult days and still know that I was valued for what I brought to the team.
That feeling of being understood has changed so much for me.
I’m still learning. I’m still growing. And there are still times when those old feelings of needing to “fit in” creep back in. After 18 years, you don’t simply just unlearn that overnight.
But now I’m learning something much more important:
I don’t need to become someone else to belong.
Finding the right people and the right environment can make such a difference. Sometimes you don’t realise how much energy you’ve spent trying to fit in until you finally find somewhere that gives you permission to just be you.
And for me, that place has been Crossroads.
Crossroads hasn’t just changed my working life. It has helped me learn more about myself, accept myself and realise that there was never one “normal” way I needed to be.
Sometimes finding the place where you belong and are accepted changes more than your job.
Sometimes it changes the way you see yourself too.
