Internships

I keep coming across these internship opportunities, but they all require someone to be in school at the time of application. That is disconcerting to someone like me who is already out of school, but needs field experience. While it's true that I should've taken up an internship while I was in college, at the time I had no idea what field I was interested in, and was still immature enough to think it could be done later. Now I realize that this could be a huge problem keeping young people from getting started, because I'm not the only person to ever change my major, and given the current state of the economy, competition could end up weeding people like me out just because we changed our minds.

My question is, why must the system be so heavily biased toward kids who know what they want to do the minute they graduate from high school? Those of us who change majors midway through college are at a disadvantage because all of our efforts are spent catching up to our classmates, and there is little hope for a job on the side in our new field.

While teaching interests me because of the chance to change other people's futures, the constant repetition of "I'm what not to do" gets tiring, although it seems to be a more widely distributable idea. Perhaps blogging isn't the best way to reach kids these days but high-schoolers seem to respond to the way I present them with the idea of their futures, and how they need to actively participate in shaping them. Maybe a book, or pamphlet knowing my attention span at 17, would help give kids an idea of how mired down you can get if you just do what your parents tell you to do and never develop a passion for anything.

Since I'm well past that stage, it almost seems like it's too late to get started. I don't want other people to get to that point. Parents put a lot of pressure on their kids to do well in school and go to college that often the reasons behind it are lost in the process. Kids need to want to do something with their lives to effectively plot a course to get there - simply saying to a kid "you're going to college" doesn't inspire them to think about for what and why. Granted there are kids who grow up wanting to be a doctor or a veterinarian, but a large number of students these days get to college without a sense of direction - the "everybody does it" rationale.

While getting a college education is the only path to economic viability these days, it needs to be a desire that is nurtured and not an eventuality that might prompt some resistance from a teenager. we weren't all perfect at that age, and teenage rebelliousness can really hurt your chances at discovering your life ambitions these days. It sucks that it starts so young, but it's a fact that kids are being forced to make serious decisions at earlier and earlier stages of their lives.

I saw a story in the New York Times a few weeks ago about parents fighting to get their children into the right preschools, and how that will determine whether their kids get into Ivy league schools. While that is ridiculous, it's important to consider the ramifications of the competitive nature of the education environment today. If teens aren't encouraged to think about their futures in a way that makes the process appealing, their resistance could cost them valuable time better spent working toward their goals.

Back to blogging

Since I haven't been on this in such a long time I figured I'd delete old, inconsequential items and try to stick to what I've been doing recently. Today I am worrying that the 84 318i whose shift lever doesn't connect securely to the lower shift rod might get stuck in gear again and I'll have to drive to CT to help fix it again.

I want to go to school to be a certified mechanic, among other things, but the best school nearby is in Queens and that's a haul without a full time day job. This economic crisis thing really blows. Why did no one tell me that u less I got a second degree, political science might as well be called "broke for a living,'" because I could've used that little pep talk.

Now whenever I'm teaching I make sure to tell these high school kids to keep in mind that getting a job is one reason to go to college, beyond the "parents made me" and "I thought everyone does" write-offs. I told my mom (currently driving to her new house 9 states away) that I do this spiel and she thought I'd been kidnapped and replaced by a more sensible clone. Why do parents assume you maintain the mentality of a 16 year old well into your twenties? Does that ever actually end?

Since I still can't decide what precisely I want to do with my life, and my ambition to be a political player seems stifled by my current lack of wealthy relatives or some miraculous financial genius, I return to the blog to release some frustration.

My first rant

In today's society, people and businesses are far more interdependent than ever before. The internet allows real time contact worldwide, and local issues are increasingly being ignored as globalization directs media attention away from individuals' immediate concerns. Specialization in industry has reached the point where production and distribution have become exclusive businesses - now few individuals are capable of performing multiple roles, because individualism has morphed into a concept which forces people to pidgeon-hole themselves into careers with a sense of finality, of destiny. Instead of becoming as good at everything we are interested in, we feel this urgent need to be the best at ONE thing. Why? Because there is an economic incentive behind being the absolute best at a single task - specialists get paid. There is nothing wrong with this, or with being one of those people who are dedicated to a single interest, but this life can be unfair, because capable individuals with more divergent interests are handicapped if they choose not to focus in a single area.

There are plenty of people who are equally interested in unrelated careers or industries. I myself have an obsession with automotive mechanics which I have yet to pursue because I was encouraged to finish my bachelors in Political Science before attending a technical school. My parents hoped that the part of me interested in mechanics - to them a lowly manual labor position - would die and be replaced by a desire for an advanced degree. There is a growing desire in me to go back to school and get another degree, returning to my love for biology and medicine, but the interest is in knowing how the human body works - in truth not such a different thing from knowing how the automobile works or how to fix it. I want to know how my engine works as much as I want to know how my circulatory system works, but I am equally interested in discussing social and political problems because I believe that those who bring local issues to attention can often help others on a grander scale. Doctors who save people from immediate harm are in necessary and commendable positions, but there is also an equal need for people to recognize social situations (especially in underprivileged communities) which can be attended to.

Creating communities which foster interdependence requires measures which alleviate the oppositional nature of the relationship between authorities and the community, which might be the first step toward a more stable social environment. The fear of the police, the distrust of children's services officials, and the undercurrent of animosity against the government must be eliminated before these institutions can be said to be truly valuable by those they affect the most. This requires a great deal of interaction between the authorities and the citizenry - demolished by the advent of commuting and home entertainment - which can provide a basis of trust which allows capable citizens the chance to truly voice their grievances to their representatives. These representatives must then be capable of understanding a vast array of circumstances, strategies for coping with conflict, and modes of discussion which allow varied interests a chance to participate. The internet provides a fantastic new medium for this kind of social networking and interaction, but it still requires that we hold our representatives to the highest standards. In today's world, where individual interests rarely coincide, there is a need for our representatives to be multi-talented - not only educated, but also experienced, empathetic and knowledgable about many walks of life, and thus capable of weighing different needs with a more developed understanding of the far reaching effects of their decisions.


Why must we all force ourselves to give up our interests in pursuit of economic gain? Is there something so wrong with making a modest income from something you love instead of a generous income from only part of your desire? Is the resulting wealth truly more satisfying than achieving one's own dreams? Its tough, because today's world is not monetarily forgiving - we need more and more money to achieve even the basics: a house, a yard, a car, and college tuition for kids are all rising in cost, and becoming increasingly out of reach for the average working American. How can we redevelop the concept of a successful individual to allow those who have intellegent and creative solutions to social concerns, despite the lack of an expert level specialization, which can only come from people whose experience crosses into several different social arenas. These people, and those who understand the ins and outs of daily life for a number of social groups - anthropologists and sociologists and the like - might be the key to avoiding messy social consequences in this economically fragile nation.

NOTE: There are minds more capable and more educated than mine, and I don't profess to know 'the truth' or 'the solution' or an equally impossible level of understanding. I only hope to start discussions about issues which need to be addressed: issues that are discussed by people other than the people they impact, and these issues are either ignored by those affected or discussed helplessly amongst themselves. We must figure out how to turn the public back into citizenry, and how to make the 'public interest' an actual public interest.
I don't have all the answers, but right now we need to put all of lifes questions on the table.