At work, one of my many duties is to monitor the progress of the numerous college students that work in our building. All of the 'kids' (I was ready to bang my head against a wall when one of them handed me their drivers license and it said DOB: March 2, 1987) are usually full of energy and great ideas when they arrive. They ask questions and share all of the plans, they are like little sponges...they soak up all that you give them and they are never satisfied, they constantly want more. They have the maps made for their future. They reminds me of myself when I was their age. I can't even believe I just wrote: "when I was their age".
One of the interns, who just wasn't progressing at the pace as everyone else, came to work on Tuesday morning; resigned and then went home. Yup, she came in on Monday and worked. She asked to leave early that afternoon. Tuesday morning she came in, said good morning, cleaned off her desk, and then handed me a letter that read:
Dear Ms. ILP,
I am writing this letter to let you know that I will not be continuing my internship with you. I went home last night and watched my 50 year old father work on his car and realized that I needed to tell you what I have known for a long time. I do not want to live my life doing something that I am not interested in. I do not enjoy education, I do not enjoy being in charge, I do not enjoy what education has become. I do enjoy reading books, but I do not enjoy educating people about them. I do not want to be involved with it.
I would like to look back at my life when I become my father's age and be able to say that I changed the world. I am not interested in changing the entire world, but I am interested in changing the part of it that I will be involved with. I have no idea (at this time) what I may be doing when I change the world, but I know it will not be in the way that this current internship is trying to prepare me.
Thank you for your time and understanding. I especially want to thank you for your patience (I know that I put you through a lot).
Sincerely,
XXXXXXX
Everyone wanted to know if I was upset about the intern quitting. They wanted to know if I was going to tell her college supervisor how unprofessionally she resigned. They all seemed concerned that I may have been hurt by the interns decision.
I cant say that she resigned at the most convenient time. But when are those sort of things convenient?
That intern did get me to thinking though. How does a person know if/when they are going to change the world?
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My birthday is in a week and I've been thinking a lot about this very subject.
I have loved the written word since I was a small child. Books make me happy. I loved where they took me. Then at some point I decided that I wanted to be a writer. But coming from a hard working Jamaican family you don't go to college and major in English! So I became a social worker. For many years I really enjoyed the profession. I think my youth shielded me from all the bullshit and red tape that it takes to do that kind of job. I'm not so shielded anymore and my true passion - writing - has been taking up more space in my life. At one point I quit my "good government job" to explore a life as a poet/writer/teacher. My hiatus lasted a year. Fear made me go back to a fulltime gig. A sista had a mortgage.
Three years later I am back to making another life changing decision. I don't want to do what I'm doing for the rest of my life. I want to write and create and teach other people to do the same. I'm going to take a ten thousand dollar pay cut to make this happen. It is that important to me.
I've resisted the urge to lament that I didn't make this decision when I was your intern's age because I think I needed to learn the life lessons that has brought me exactly where I am.
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