Graduation is in four days; yesterday was the last day for professors to submit grades; and I officially stopped giving a shit about the minor assignment or four that I completely ignored this semester. The past two years were not academically challenging for me. Extreme procrastination (prolonged senioritis) during exams was the only reason I ever felt stressed during the master's program, and I mostly cruised through the classes, exerting the least amount of energy I could to keep my grades looking sexy.
I didn't expand my technical knowledge a whole lot except for the many acronyms I can now rattle off to sound impressive and Masterful...SWOC, UNHCR (ACNUR in Spanish), HDR, U5MR, WASH, OVC, PACA, MFI, MDG, SAP, WTF, LOL, etc. Isn't that what everyone wants out of higher education really?
The social work education was not about learning specialized skills that'll give me a "competitive edge" in the job market (such cold, ugly words). The actual work I do entails: glorified grammar checks on regurgitated proposals; staring at budgets to make sure the numbers match the amounts on the invoices; reading research papers, and Googling stuff, while listening to music. I could do that without six years of college and fatty student loans.
Inevitably, there are days when I need to look past the paperwork, and remind myself that in some small, indirect way, I'm doing what I can to let a child be a child for a little while longer, on another continent. But if you're in it for moral gratification, superiority or immediate tangible results, go home.
Social work has been a hard lesson in conscientiousness and humility. I've come to think constantly and automatically about the excluded people in this world, about where they are and where I am. About why they are there and why I am here. I don't forget even for a minute that I will earn a comfortable living from another's misery. I don't take for granted that at the end of the work day, I have the privilege to go home and forget; that I have a choice and they don't.
I'm careful not to think "There are people with worse problems in the world" when I'm having a rough day. But I'm always anchored by the thought that I am living and working for something bigger than myself. Being the self-involved and prideful creature that I am, I continue to be surprised and relieved that I've chosen to dedicate my life to others. It gives me hope for the other assholes out there.
I got into this field because I cried over spilt milk. I will stay in this field because of food insecurity, child and infant mortality, illegal land grabs, female foeticide and infanticide, refugees, corruption, gender-based violence, conflict minerals, income disparity, illiteracy, trafficking, HIV/AIDS, and well, the list is long and I need to get started.
I didn't expand my technical knowledge a whole lot except for the many acronyms I can now rattle off to sound impressive and Masterful...SWOC, UNHCR (ACNUR in Spanish), HDR, U5MR, WASH, OVC, PACA, MFI, MDG, SAP, WTF, LOL, etc. Isn't that what everyone wants out of higher education really?
The social work education was not about learning specialized skills that'll give me a "competitive edge" in the job market (such cold, ugly words). The actual work I do entails: glorified grammar checks on regurgitated proposals; staring at budgets to make sure the numbers match the amounts on the invoices; reading research papers, and Googling stuff, while listening to music. I could do that without six years of college and fatty student loans.
Inevitably, there are days when I need to look past the paperwork, and remind myself that in some small, indirect way, I'm doing what I can to let a child be a child for a little while longer, on another continent. But if you're in it for moral gratification, superiority or immediate tangible results, go home.
Social work has been a hard lesson in conscientiousness and humility. I've come to think constantly and automatically about the excluded people in this world, about where they are and where I am. About why they are there and why I am here. I don't forget even for a minute that I will earn a comfortable living from another's misery. I don't take for granted that at the end of the work day, I have the privilege to go home and forget; that I have a choice and they don't.
I'm careful not to think "There are people with worse problems in the world" when I'm having a rough day. But I'm always anchored by the thought that I am living and working for something bigger than myself. Being the self-involved and prideful creature that I am, I continue to be surprised and relieved that I've chosen to dedicate my life to others. It gives me hope for the other assholes out there.
I got into this field because I cried over spilt milk. I will stay in this field because of food insecurity, child and infant mortality, illegal land grabs, female foeticide and infanticide, refugees, corruption, gender-based violence, conflict minerals, income disparity, illiteracy, trafficking, HIV/AIDS, and well, the list is long and I need to get started.
Blogs need a 'Like' button, because I really 'like' this post.
ReplyDelete'Social work has been a hard lesson in conscientiousness and humility': such a good post and lots of insight
ReplyDeleteI love your kinda anachronistic statement "I don't forget even for a minute that I will earn a comfortable living from another's misery."
ReplyDeleteIn it I see the courage to see the truths of life and to say it out aloud.