ALL POSTS BY: Owen Bloggers

Editors’ note: It is common for students to attend business school for the purpose of making a major career change, and there are myriad programs and support staff in place to help facilitate this sort of transition. But a second year at Owen is undergoing a much more profound change. OwenBloggers is proud to present the first in a series of lifestyle pieces written by a student chronicling her experience as a transgender student at a major American business school.

It started with a long, uphill walk under the glare of the late morning Atlanta sun. Wearing a black suit might have been a mistake, especially since it was unseasonably hot for the end of March. But the heat wasn’t why I was moving slower than molasses – I was walking in three-inch heels to the hotel where I’d interview as female for the first time. This was the only interview attire I’d brought with me since I didn’t want to give myself the option to chicken out, and I was starting to question whether that was the right decision.

Editors’ note: It is common for students to attend business school for the purpose of making a major career change, and there are myriad programs and support staff in place to help facilitate this sort of transition. But a second year at Owen is undergoing a much more profound change. OwenBloggers is proud to present the first in a series of lifestyle pieces written by a student chronicling her experience as a transgender student at a major American business school.

One of the things that surprised me about business school is how applicable a lot of the frameworks we’ve learned are in unpacking and processing a lot of things related to transition. For example, lately I’ve felt that people (mostly strangers) seem to look and/or stare at me a lot more than they did before. Instead of the socially acceptable “I’m going to look at you and then look away,” I get something more along the lines of, ‘wait, what?’ that comes with an apparently instinctive second look that… nags at me. I usually assume it is because they can’t figure out my gender, which surprises/bothers them so much that they briefly forget how their mamas raised them – but being kind of nerdy, I try to figure out what’s going on.