Mandy Joblinske, 25, a barista and a young face CC students see almost everyday at Colorado Coffee, was born and raised in Colorado Springs, “which is honestly kind of lame,” she said. “Its like super conservative…so I mean that was really interesting…you don’t really notice how conservative or liberal a place is until you get out and experience the world, but I was born and raised here and went to Catholic school all my life…Preschool, Elementary school, middle school, high school… all Catholic school.”
Joblinske only began to identify as an individual upon leaving this environment, and moving to Greely, Colorado, where she attended the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) to get her bachelors degree in Elementary Education. “You know how college is,” Joblinske said. “I got to discover who I was more…and that was my first experience being in a really liberal place, you know, with really open minded people.”
I guess it was kind of helpful for a lot of self discoveries,” reflected Joblinske. “Like I kind of got to come to terms with the fact that I identify as a lesbian…my whole life going to Catholic school I was really in denial about it…I didn’t really know that it was an option, you know…that was such an empowering thing for me…just to realize that there was this whole part of me that I’d never really even thought about.”
As many delve deeper into the elementary education program at UNC, she talked about a kind of regression in her ability to express her sense of individuality. “I had a really interesting experience with student teaching just because, I don’t know, I guess my appearance is off putting to elementary schools,” Joblinske explained. “I had a really hard time, like I almost got kicked out of my program a couple times.”
“They just didn’t like any of that stuff,” she continued, referring to the times she forgot to take her lip piercing out, or the way that once her clothing exposing a small section of her tattoo. “I mean, I had to wear a uniform all my life… I never really knew what my style was… so then I went to college, and I was like okay, I’m 18, I can go a little crazy… dyed my hair pink and got my lip pierced and my septum… It was fine at first, because I wasn’t working with kids… the more I got to working with kids the more it was like you can’t look like this and be a part of this program… so I would conform to that a little.”
As Joblinske began to feel as though she was truly expressing her sense of individuality, her environment once again began to hinder upon her. “My senior year it was just so bad,” she said. “I got in trouble so many times, and I couldn’t wear any of my piercings, and I had to have normal hair.”
“It’s just weird to me because I’m working with these kids who are 5 or 6 years old, and they don’t care, you know?” said Joblinske. “And they are the most loving little beings… I worked in Greely, so I worked at a bunch of low socio-economic kind of schools, and I worked with parents… I did parent teacher conferences… and a lot of the parents would look like me… like they had their eyebrow pierced or full sleeve tattoos.”
Joblinske expressed frustration in her struggle to comply to the system of her study, “and I was a really good teacher… really good!” she said, “so when I graduated [2014] I was like, I don’t really know if I want to dedicate my life to being in such a judgmental environment.” She initially moved back to Colorado Springs “to figure out what I wanted and what my direction was.” Joblinske spoke about coming back home after her time at UNC and experiencing a kind of tenseness amongst friends. “I still wanted to hide who I was,” she said. She described her family, however, as being incredibly accepting of both her appearance and her sexuality. “My mom used to tell me that it was ironic that I was trying to be a teacher because when I was young she used to think things like ‘I wouldn’t want someone gay teaching my son because that would put him at risk’ …insanity… and then I came out, and I was teaching kids, and she was like ‘I just learned such a huge lesson…’ that was so eye opening to me,” Joblinske said.
Soon after her arrival home, she began looking to do something new. “I started looking in to coffee shops because I always thought that being a barista would be really fun,” Joblinske explained. In November of 2014 she began working in Colorado Coffee. “I do sincerely love making drinks and talking to students,” she said. “I’ve gotten to form all these really great relationships…I get to see the same faces, and I know what’s going on in a ton of peoples lives…I really love it.”
Joblinkse may love her job at Colorado Coffee, but she has also begun to turn her focus towards the future. “I just recently applied for grad school,” she said. “Oregon State University for a Women, Gender, and Sexuality degree.” During her time at UNC, Joblinske became part of an LGBT club, assuming the role as president for two years.
“I really want to be an activist for the LGBT community,” she explained. “Obviously the political state of our country is really bad right now…that was definitely one of the things that pushed me…I was like, I have to do something.”
“I was like, what is the best thing I’ve ever done with my life,” Joblinkse described. “And honestly the best thing I’ve ever done is being president of that queer group at UNC…I just got to create this community for these kids that didn’t have anything, kids who couldn’t be out at home or in their classrooms, or to their roommates…I just got to create this family. I totally want to be a part of something like that…but as a career…that would just be an absolute dream.”
“I can’t spend my life trying to hide who I am again…Catholic school was hard enough,” she said. “I don’t want to be one of those people that was born, raised and dies all in the same place…I just feel like there are so many places to explore and see…why stay here?”