Hello everyone! My name is Pete and I am an upper senior majoring in Elementary Education and minoring in English here at Queens College. I recently started an exciting, albeit challenging, new job at a District 75 school which aims to support students with significant cognitive delays, autism, sensory impairments and multiple disabilities. This, admittedly, is a far cry from the minutiae of my previous jobs that took place in an office setting. Musically, my taste runs the gamut from rock (Joan Jett, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Jefferson Airplane, St. Vincent, et cetera…) to country (Dolly Parton, Shania Twain, Kacey Musgraves, Brandi Carlile et cetera…).

I have always had an affinity towards all things feminine, which extends to whose music I choose to listen to. My favorite genre of music is pop, which I now understand as being pretty nebulous and ever-changing. So I’ll just say that the pop music that I enjoy listening to is from a certain era, namely, from the 90s and early 2000s from artists like Madonna, Mariah Carey, The Spice Girls, and Britney Spears among others. I believe I have pop music to thank for helping me come to terms with my sexuality. After all, it’s been these powerful and influential women that have shaped my perception of how important self-expression in all facets of life is.  I did not just want to be like these women, I wanted to be them. And now, as a thirty-year-old, I credit these women for providing me with a foresight to express myself openly and honestly while following their evolutions throughout their careers. (I’m probably rambling, so I apologize if I am not making a coherent argument.)

Some fun—and perhaps superfluous—facts about me are:
1. I’m non-binary and use they/them pronouns.
2. I legally changed my name from Pedro to Pete after graduating high school for the simple fact that I feared that certain job opportunities wouldn’t present themselves to me with a name like Pedro Medrano. In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t changed it at all because I now know many successful people with diverse names who have gone on and literally (and for lack of a better word) made a name for themselves while embracing their cultural identities.
3. I read a lot and enjoy memoirs especially.
4. I am currently working on my first children’s book entitled I Can Too, which I hope will decimate the arbitrary gender norms that we adopt at an early age like boys cannot wear pink or show their emotions because it is a sign of weakness et cetera… My goal for this book is to have children embrace every aspect of their being in order for them to unapologetically express themselves without external criticism and berating from both their peers and adults.

I’m so excited to get the chance to work with you all and wish you a successful semester.