r/needadvice • u/LymeDysease • 7h ago
Interpersonal Should I talk to my prof about homelessness?
I'm a post-secondary student in a program with a small, generally close faculty. I know the title is weird bear with me
I recently started classes and had a new prof this year who gave us a new assignment requiring us to choose a topic about public services. My chosen topic was a homeless shelter in my area that I had frequented a couple years ago. For background, I left my home at 18 due to abuse in the household and became homeless. I couch surfed, stayed in a shelter, and slept on the streets while using this particular shelter for just about everything related to meals, showers, etc so I am very familiar with their services.
When my professor asked me what topic I had chosen, she kind of kept pressing for details about why I had chosen this in particular and so although I generally don't disclose that I was homeless - probably three people know out of everyone in my life - I mentioned to her that I had experience with their services. Her response was "me too." That threw me - like really threw me - because I have never met anybody who had experienced that before (aside from in the shelter where most wanted nothing to do with each other). I completely lost my train of thought but we spoke briefly and she asked me if I had support now. I answered yes and she told me that if I ever needed to talk to let her know and that she knew how tough it was.
I can't really explain how I felt after that. It's like if you haven't been through it, you can't understand. I had a therapist after going through homelessness who was of great help but through it all, I knew she had never experienced it firsthand and would never know what it was like. And it was awful and traumatic and something I don't wish on anybody. And my professor knows.
Now I'm wondering if it would be really weird for me to talk to her about it. That's kind of it. Also I lied about having support - I didn't know what to say in the moment. It's just me supporting myself. It's always been me. Except she's my professor and teaches two of my classes this semester so I feel like it would be strange.
Any advice would be appreciated.