"My Life" by Alyssa -- interning at an international social justice agency
My Life
My experience at my internship so far has been above and beyond my expectations. I have had internships before, but none that had me as involved as this one. I find myself looking forward to Wednesdays now just because I never know what task i will be dealing with in the office. Some days I am working on fair trade, the next it's malaria issues in Africa, and now it's Iraqi refugees in Syria and Lebanon. It also helps that the staff and my director that I am working with are just so eager to share their knowledge with me.
This Tuesday, Founder's Day, is just going to top everything off. I am so excited to meet the president of the organization I am working for, and also with Ishmeal Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone. I have weaseled my way into every possible event they may be attending on Tuesday just because I want to learn everything I can about their work. I have made the ultimate decision on what I want to do with my life after interning, and I am now ready to hear how others feel about the work they do.
I have always felt the need to help people internationally, and for the longest time struggeled with the big question: What do I want to do with my life?
Everyone seems to have an opinion on what i should do:
1. Go for the job that will offer the most money!
2. Become a teacher
3. Be a news anchor
4. Do what makes you happy (for a long time i did not now what that was)
5. Take a job in the area, because we do not want you to move far away
Well, it's time for me to do what I want. I want to work in the non-profit sector to help advocate for the protection of children's rights. You hear too many horror stories about children being abducted and forced into child labor, slavery, prostitution, or used as soldiers. It's awful and it should be stopped and someone needs to be a voice for these children who have had that voice stolen from them. There is only one problem... how do I go about doing this? Not only that, but when I tell people that this is what I want to do, I get a lot of funny looks and people saying "Well, there is not a lot of money to be made in that field."
I do not care about pay. I need enough money for an apartment and food and gas and that is it. Right now I am paying for all of those things singlehandedly by babysitting and bringing home maybe $800 a month. As long as I have enough money to get by, the only thing I want to do is to be an activist for children. I am no longer going to listen to other people tell me how I should run my life. Interning here has opened my eyes to so many issues in the world that are going on unaddressed; I want to be there to help.
My experience at my internship so far has been above and beyond my expectations. I have had internships before, but none that had me as involved as this one. I find myself looking forward to Wednesdays now just because I never know what task i will be dealing with in the office. Some days I am working on fair trade, the next it's malaria issues in Africa, and now it's Iraqi refugees in Syria and Lebanon. It also helps that the staff and my director that I am working with are just so eager to share their knowledge with me.
This Tuesday, Founder's Day, is just going to top everything off. I am so excited to meet the president of the organization I am working for, and also with Ishmeal Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone. I have weaseled my way into every possible event they may be attending on Tuesday just because I want to learn everything I can about their work. I have made the ultimate decision on what I want to do with my life after interning, and I am now ready to hear how others feel about the work they do.
I have always felt the need to help people internationally, and for the longest time struggeled with the big question: What do I want to do with my life?
Everyone seems to have an opinion on what i should do:
1. Go for the job that will offer the most money!
2. Become a teacher
3. Be a news anchor
4. Do what makes you happy (for a long time i did not now what that was)
5. Take a job in the area, because we do not want you to move far away
Well, it's time for me to do what I want. I want to work in the non-profit sector to help advocate for the protection of children's rights. You hear too many horror stories about children being abducted and forced into child labor, slavery, prostitution, or used as soldiers. It's awful and it should be stopped and someone needs to be a voice for these children who have had that voice stolen from them. There is only one problem... how do I go about doing this? Not only that, but when I tell people that this is what I want to do, I get a lot of funny looks and people saying "Well, there is not a lot of money to be made in that field."
I do not care about pay. I need enough money for an apartment and food and gas and that is it. Right now I am paying for all of those things singlehandedly by babysitting and bringing home maybe $800 a month. As long as I have enough money to get by, the only thing I want to do is to be an activist for children. I am no longer going to listen to other people tell me how I should run my life. Interning here has opened my eyes to so many issues in the world that are going on unaddressed; I want to be there to help.
posted by Jerry Zurek at
9:53 PM
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