06/24/2025
Seven years ago, I wrote a letter to myself to open on the first day of my very first s*xuality conference.
At the time I was about a year out of grad school, living in Seattle, working in community mental health. I don’t remember why I specifically decided to write this, but I can guess it must have been from a deep longing to be part of community of s*x therapists and educators that I admired from afar and have been learning from since high school.
I must’ve not been able to afford going back in 2017, but was determined to go as soon as I could. So, I wrote a letter to talk to myself on that first day, whenever that was, knowing what it would mean to both of us that we finally arrived. I wouldn’t have known that my first conference would be seven years later, June 2025.
For many reasons it hadn’t been possible to attend a conference. Even this year, I questioned if I could afford it. In the end, I knew I needed to do this for myself. I needed community, kinship with other professionals, and honestly just something different from being stuck in my damn house working from home all the time. As soon as many people at the conference reminded one another, it gets lonely.
I’m so grateful to 2017 me for recognizing attending this conference would be so impactful, and that I would need help not taking that for granted. It worked. And I’m still cherishing the memories of it.
