Ian Winbrock

Ian Winbrock speaks about moving his political activism from his dayjob into his volunteer life, and about finding love again. 

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Thanks for listening!

Transcript

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 You're listening to StoryHelix: intertwining
 stories past, present, and not yet
 
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 Imagined in Lane County, Oregon.
 What's up, earthlings? I'm Leah Velez,
 
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 and I'll be your host. The
 story we're about to hear was recorded at
 
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 Oakshire Brewing Company in the Whiteaker neighborhood
 of Eugene, Oregon in early 2022.  Let's open
 
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 up our ear nuggets and give it
 a listen. My name's Ian Winbrock.
 
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 I lived in Oregon after working in
 politics for five years in Sacramento, California,
 
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 in the state capital, in a
 city called West Sacramento, and I
 
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 worked for the longest serving mayor of
 the city of West Sacramento. His
 
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 name is Christopher Cabaldon, and he's no
 longer the mayor there. 
 
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 One of the first openly gay mayors in the United
 States. And I worked sixty to eighty to hundred hour weeks and
 
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 I was just getting burnt out.
 I was having pretty pretty intense wear and
 
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 tear on my psyche and I needed
 to transition. My partner at the time
 
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 really supported me moving to Oregon.
 So I looked at Grad school programs where
 
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 I could get my MBA
 and that I could work for the university.
 
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 So I could get a substantial discount off
 my tuition, and the University of
 
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 Oregon in Eugene fit the bill.
 So I came to Eugene, where I
 
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 have friends as good as family who
 have lived here for many, many years,
 
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 and I came and visited, decided it
 would be a good place for my
 
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 partner and I to transition to, and
 with their blessing, I moved here in
 
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 December of two thousand and eighteen.
 I hoped that this would be a fresh
 
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 start. I hoped that this place
 would be a community where I could cultivate
 
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 my passions, where I could grow
 professionally, where I could grow personally,
 
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 where I could foster the type of
 civic involvement and innovation and community engagement there
 
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 were the defining features of my life
 philosophy up to that point. Working in
 
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 politics was the living embodiment of my
 identity because I'm super passionate about how people
 
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 represent themselves and collectively co-create change. So it was a big leap for
 
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 me to leave something that was so
 foundational to who I was and move into
 
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 a space where I could still be
 that same person, but in a different
 
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 way, and I was hoping that
 Oregon and Eugene was going to be the
 
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 place for me to do that.
 Interviewer: Does it feel like home? Ian: No,
 
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 no, it does not. I've experienced
 a lot. I have experienced a lot
 
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 of personal pain since I've been here. I felt almost immediately a sense of
 
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 betrayal. My partner said that she
 supported me moving here, but broke up
 
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 with me pretty quickly after I had
 moved here, after about two months,
 
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 and then she started hooking up with
 a former friend of mine and neither of
 
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 them were honest about that. So
 it felt like a big sense of betrayal.
 
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 Also, my employer deceived me as
 to what my job responsibilities would be
 
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 and what I would be doing.
 So it became pretty apparent that my job
 
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 was not what I had signed up
 for and I pretty much failed the GMATs
 
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 because I was heartbroken from the
 breakup. I got dumped. And from the
 
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 from the job realization. So I
 was kind of rudderless. I haven't been
 
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 single in like five or six years, and my job was grossly unfulfilling.
 
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 So I started looking for employment elsewhere
 and I started looking for a sense of
 
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 fulfillment outside of my job, which
 was really new to me, too, because
 
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 it was the primary source of my
 fulfillment. Which led me to a lot
 
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 of service work. I started looking
 for opportunities to serve on nonprofit boards,
 
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 City Commissions, service organizations,
 to be able to get that kind of
 
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 civic engagement, sense of self co-creation of community, cultivation of fair governments,
 
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 like all the values that I used
 to live through my professional life I
 
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 was gonna start living again through my
 personal life, by hook or by crook.
 
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 And yeah, to Eugene's credit
 and Oregon's credit, this has been
 
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 a place where I have been able
 to do that-- just not during my
 
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 professional life. Outside of it.
 Yeah, there's a wonderful things. I've
 
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 met you. By the way,
 the person who's interviewing me is my girlfriend.
 
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 Her name's Emma Jones, and so, yeah, I would say one
 
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 of the the most impactful experiences of
 me being here is falling in love again
 
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 and being open to falling in love
 again, and that's been the treasure of
 
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 my time here. I
 love you, Emma. Emma: I love you, too.  
 
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 Thanks for listening. You can find us wherever you listen
 to your podcasts. If you've got your
 
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 own Lane County story to tell,
 we'd love to hear it 
 
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 at StoryHelix.Wordcrafters.org.