Deep in the forest...
“Deep in the forest
There’s an unexpected clearing
That can be reached
Only by someone who has lost his way”
Tomas Tranströmer, Swedish Writer and Poet
This quote is soothing in its suggestion that far out in the realms of wilderness, you may just find the serenity you need. Looking for your first proper job can feel a lot an expedition out into the wilderness where you end up straying from this certain path you foresaw for yourself. Among all the dense trees it’s a challenge to find your way forward and it can seem as though you’re wandering in circles rather than making any real progress onwards. Coming across a clearing, deep in the forest, is like finding a source of clarity and peace in the confusion of job ads, career advice blogs and email updates on job posts. It reminds me of one of the pearls of wisdom from the Rolling Stones:
"You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometime you find
You get what you need."
A prolonged job-hunt is unavoidable when you’re not willing to settle for a job that you’re not passionate about, and sometimes you just need to find a clearing on your way through the forest to rest for a while.
I know that I have a lot to offer when the right job comes along. I enjoy putting in the work and using my skills to get a good job done but in return I need to know that my work serves a greater purpose. I need to know that I’m doing something in a small way to make this world a better place. It may sound slightly naïve but that’s one thing I always knew about my career plans; that I wanted to do something that makes the world better in some way. I was involved in lots of volunteering projects growing up and maybe that instilled this philanthropic philosophy on me: I mucked in with many different projects ranging from helping out at a local advice centre for homeless people, painting a mural at a local doctor’s surgery to organising a local group to go to Edinburgh and campaign with the YMCA on the Make Poverty History March. I went to Costa Rica when I was 18 to volunteer with a turtle protection scheme and spent my nights patrolling the local beach and warding off poachers.
I went on to study German and Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and then did my masters in Childhood Studies and Children’s Rights at the Freie Universität in Berlin. My masters really made me look at children and concepts of childhood in a different light and how these relate to each other in a socially relative context, as well as considering how we view children in society compared to children in an international context and the rights they hold. It’s been said by many, among them Pearl Buck, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Mahatma Ghandi, that you should judge a society on how it treats its weakest members, children being one of them. In general children are treated well in the UK but still relatively few are aware of the rights afforded to them in international legislation. One of the key focus areas of child-rights-based programming is children actively participating in society and political life and this is only realistic if children are well-informed on their rights.
When the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was signed and ratified by 192 countries, it showed a great respect and appreciation for the rights of children globally, but how does this reflect in reality? Are children’s rights respected as much in a practical sense as much as they are theoretically?
Well, these are some of the issues I dealt with in my studies and I hope to find a way of contributing to the development of the children’s rights movement in my professional life.
At the moment I’m still in the forest. Maybe in the clearing they’ll be a signpost pointing the way to my next job! Here’s hoping!
