Sunday, 12 May 2013

Not Knowing Is the Fun Bit

This whole “summer job” deal is, to be honest, a new concept to me. During high school, I saw my involvement in non-academics as my job, as I committed as much (or perhaps more) time and energy to them as I would a paying part-time stint at the local grocery store, Tim Horton’s, or restaurant. This involvement paid off in the end, but it certainly left the notion of working in the summer months one to be discovered after my first year of university. If you’ve read the 2012 entries in this blog, you will know that I spent last summer working in India, England, and Germany. So, as I take on this second experience this summer, I only have my India adventure with which to compare working at the Royal Society of New Zealand. Here are some of the similarities and differences I have drawn between the two. India is in orange, New Zealand is in green.

Time taken to walk to work: twenty-five seconds
Time taken to walk to work: twenty-five minutes

Work building: open-air rehearsal hall
Work building: earthquake-proof office building

My day is spent: sitting
My day is spent: sitting

While I am sitting, I am: watching Shakespeare in Persian
While I am sitting, I am: researching academic journal articles on green technologies (for example)

At work, I wear: t-shirt, shorts, sandals
At work, I wear: shirt, pants, shoes

Percentage of coworkers who speak English: 33%
Percentage of coworkers who speak English: 100%

Number of coworkers with a doctorate degree: 11
Number of coworkers from a country with the 7th lowest life expectancy: 12

I drink: tea
I drink: tea

My ability to understand what everyone is talking about: low
My ability to understand what everyone is talking about: low

My interest in what I am doing: high
My interest in what I am doing: high?

The last comparison is sort of the point of this post, and the question mark is not an unedited piece of punctuation. One of the wonderful reasons I am able to work in New Zealand is that I received a grant, to keep the explanation short, that partially covers travel and living expenses. This applies for my three years of university, however, each summer has a different “theme.” This one happens to be public policy.

There is definitely a Devon that everybody knows who is wildly interested in politics… but do they see him working in public policy? Probably not. They probably see him in a theatre somewhere. Now, as he slips out of this highly annoying third person narration, one might be confused when s/he hears that I am working in an office building… with an organization that deals primarily with science and technology… much less in the external affairs (what does that even mean, s/he thinks) sector. On paper, this job sounds a lot less exciting or diverse than, say, travelling to India to work with an Afghan theatre troupe and then touring Europe with them. But I’m ok with that, because it is a completely different, sort of incomparable experience. Ironic, I know, because I just made ten comparisons above, but that’s the delicious paradox of it all. I’m ok sitting in an office doing “academic” (and I use quotations deliberately in acknowledging the loose definition of the word) work that may never directly contribute to my eventual career(s). I think what matters is that I go into everything I do with a positive energy and that I focus on staying happy throughout… because once you are unhappy, then you have a problem.

And so I head into week 2/12 of my grand policy adventure, prepared to give it my all even when I’m not sure how much I have to give. But not knowing is the fun bit because it means that there’s a chance to surprise yourself.

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