This blog post was inspired by the prompt "Introduce yourself" for my Outreachy internship.

Hi, I am Sophiellie. I’m a geeky trans woman from Romania. During my Outreachy internship, I’ll be blogging about my experiences and potentially other unique ideas I have like discussing Pokémon GO from a tourism perspective (YES, I studied tourism in high school and will put it to good use), talking about pride, or whatever captures my interest that week.

For this post, I was asked to pick up to three core values. I chose: justice, authenticity, and community for reasons I will outline below.

Justice

Justice is a core value that resonates deeply with me, partly due to my autism, which makes me sensitive to fairness. Growing up in Romania, I faced a lot of bullying, especially in middle school and high school, due to my differences. Despite my parents’ efforts to intervene, the bullying persisted. These experiences led to me wanting a more equitable society where everyone is treated with respect and dignity.

Authenticity

Authenticity is important to me, even if being my authentic self can be scary at times, especially as I feel like an increasingly marginalized minority in my country and, seemingly, in the world at large. Living authentically is the only way we can build real trust with others. That’s why it’s important for me to be truthful about who I am to people I will collaborate with for extended periods of time. By bringing our ideas and perspectives together, we are not only enriching our own experiences, but also contributing to collective growth. Authenticity allows us to learn from each other and develop solutions that benefit everyone.

Community

Community is another core value that I hold dear. I believe that we are stronger the tighter bound out communities are and that only collaborative efforts can drive significant change. Having had the opportunity to do my tourism training abroad in Portugal, I have realized how important it is to have a network of people to rely on for support, at work, in your neighborhood and in general on a global scale.