I've realized that, at this point, three months after the fact, the excitement surrounding my June/July Guatemala service trip has all but dwindled. When I had just returned, I was keen to quickly make an online photo album. Those in-the-moment pictures and captions capture the eye-widening experience better than any words I could say here. So here they are, the links to my photo albums from my Guatemala service trip with the First Presbyterian Church of Cranbury:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037843&l=2e532&id=19300423
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037850&l=79ab9&id=19300423
As of late, I've been slothful to say the least. Fantasy football matches and fantastic presidential election gossip have been baneful to my productivity. I've learned that I am a polar person (not a soon-to-be-extinct bear). I either do a lot of stuff or I do nada. When I was enlisted in AmeriCorps I was busy all the time, but still found extra time to do more. Now, even the mundane tasks of the day don't get accomplished. I sleep in late, read the newspaper, cook a breakfast, brew a coffee, browse a internet, eat a dinner, watch a Daily Show, then go to bed. It's hard to sleep at night knowing you've wasted a blessed day of your glaringly finite life.
I believe the saying: the more you do, the more you can do. And the similar saying: If you want something done, give it to a busy person. It seems counterintuitive at first, but it's the truth. So, in order to combat my passive sloth approach, I am assigning myself routine activities. One is writing in this blog often. Another is walking with my mom in the neighborhood each morning. Another is cooking dinner for my family once a week. Another is exercising regularly. But let's get to the real task at hand here:
Applying to Environmental Studies Graduate Programs in the United States, matriculating in Fall 2009.
This process is a lot like applying for jobs (of which there are few to be had right now). You want to sell yourself. It's like you have to earn a self-marketing degree before you are eligible to apply for a position. It's not about what great work you've done or what great skills you have--it's how you present those things to the employer or the admission officer. What if marketing & sales is not your forte? Sorry. You're fucked, dude.
What do you need to sell yourself? Effective writing, speaking, and communications skills, that's what. When your high school english teacher said his/her course was the single most important course you'd ever take, they weren't lying. Why do you think Gettysburg College made me take English 101 my first semester? It wasn't just because I botched the verbal part of the SAT. It was because they knew it was the linchpin for our future, no matter what field of study or career we would decide to pursue.
Speaking is a whole other animal. Unless you took a speech class, how did you learn to speak? It was probably through the regular discourse of your life, whether it was telling ghost stories to your buds around a campfire or smooth-talkin' your honey on the other end of the line. Generally, they don't formally teach the subject of "talking". In fact, you get reprimanded if you're talking in class. The acceptable behavior in school is to go zip-lipped. And nobody ever taught me about body language and etiquette. I pick my nose. I stroke my wannabe-goatee. I don't stare people in the eyes for too long. I don't prefer button-down shirts or bowties. My hair is rarely nice, kempt, or even there at all.
In our society, the job search and graduate school application processes blatantly favor those with 1) good looks, 2) nice clothes, 3) a pleasant voice, 4) eloquence, 5) graceful manners, 6) effective writing skills. It seems that shining up my shoes and plucking my eyebrows and whitening my teeth are the best steps I can take to further my career. Some people are born ugly. And some just aren't wired to speak clearly and fluidly, but excel in other areas of intellect. There have been studies done showing that people with dyslexia often have an easier time analyzing multiple variables at once and tackling abstract spatial problems than people without dyslexia.
We are breeding our work force to mold to a certain set of character traits. We reward charm and people skills more than we reward hard work and substance. By excluding the eccentrics, the overall potential of our work force is considerably reduced. Change and innovation seems to come from the soft-spoken wacko, not from the prom king or mister best personality.
I understand why we reward eloquence and etiquette the way we do, but I do not like it. I think it's a shallow way to assess a person's level of qualification. Alas, but we have no choice if we want to get accepted or employed--we must play the game, and play it well. I'll always be a rebel, but I'm old enough and smart enough to know that "the game" is the only way you can make it in this sad world.
"Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules."
-The Catcher in the Rye
Yours truly,
Andy
1 comment:
hmm lots of food for thought here...
i totally hear you on the bi-polar work ethic; there are periods that i feel completely driven and get massive amounts of work done; and other periods when i can't seem to compel myself to do anything beyond the most minimal effort. i think it's all in the stars.
as for your comments on the breeding of the work force, i see your point but i don't think that hard work is undervalued. certainly if you are in a position for marketing or one in which your personal charms are part of your skill set as a worker, such as *ahem* college admissions, then i absolutely agree that the ability to speak intelligibly and to connect emotionally with clients is crucial.
if you're a computer engineer, however, and the crux of your position is to design some new interface to unix (you can see that i have no idea what i'm talking about when it comes to computers), then i imagine that unless your job involves lots of presentations and sales pitches, that those qualities of charm and white teeth are considerably less important.
that being said, I do think that Gettysburg's aim is inherently more to prepare students to do both: to be both hardworking, but to understand the reality that human nature dictates that success in the workforce is undeniably in part due to knowing how to influence and persuade people to see you as someone with whom they identify. it's psychologically natural that when people feel that they have something in common with you, whether they are your boss or your client, then they are more likely to side with your actions.
that's harsh, but so is that horrible study that says men in positions of power are more likely to have numerous love affairs. makes you not want to marry.
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