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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