Hi Ho, Hi ho, it's off to work I go!

Every human activity can be put at the service of the divine and of love. ~ Jean Vanier

I went back to work today after a two-week break. The eight hours zipped by. I could not believe it when it was 4:30. I like my current job but I have loved my career. It was 29 years ago this month that I graduated from St. Paul TVI as an ASL-English interpreter. That career has now spanned more than half my life. It has taught me so much. Many of my “firsts” were work-related: my first funeral, my first birthing room, and my first time inside jail. I was just a kid when I started. I was one of the youngest in my training program and was welcomed by the other 29 students graciously. I was the only Canadian and probably had the most experience interacting in the Deaf Community. The others should have hated me as they struggled to understand the instructors and do the task at hand but instead I formed some relationships that are still solid and cherished. I try to get together with a handful of these women as often as we can. They helped shape this young, innocent prairie girl’s ideas, values, and dreams. I owe them more than I can articulate. They were women who were older, wiser, and brilliantly strong in ways I had never encountered. They were feminists. They were activists. They were nature-lovers. They were amazing and I graduated with much more than a certificate in interpreting. My world was never going to be the same because of them.

The program lasted five months. Now it is a four-year BA program. I came back to Winnipeg and immediately was overwhelmed by the need here where there was a shortage of trained interpreters. I hit the ground running and worked in the community for 8 years before taking a year’s sabbatical. The privilege of interpreting is that you are intertwined intimately in people’s lives. I have had opportunities that have been sacred—to witness the birth of a child, to relay the healing words of a mental health practioner, to speak loving words from a Deaf child to their parent. I have witnessed interactions that can be described, as Vanier says, for the service of the divine and of love. I have glimpsed into the dark side of the world: addiction, abortion, rape, and domestic violence. I know things that I would rather not know and yet there is nothing I would change. Every human activity has a powerful lesson to it.

peace,

Suzanne