On Big Things

I recently had a cause to put together my resume, and I've noticed something about things like that: there is work experience and there is life experience.

I didn't have a real job for most of high school.  So far in college, I've only been able to knit a few things for a sale.  It's safe to say that I haven't had Official Work Experience since 2012, when I worked at a summer camp at my dojang.  When I look at the Work Experience part of my resume, I feel kind of lame - one of my biggest fears is that I'm going to get trapped into a vicious cycle where my lack of work experience, especially in the field where I'm applying, prevents me from getting hired.  Generally speaking, companies that need writer-type people don't hire people who are lifeguards, camp counselors, and/ or knitters.  Even if those people are blogging novelists who can translate Homer.  (I think I'm learning that translating Homer might not be the most important life skill I acquire in college).

At the same time, I've also noticed that there is another kind of experience - the kind that doesn't go onto your resume.  What the hiring committee might not see is that I'm a second degree black belt, I know classical Greek, I can knit in two different directions (I'm assuming that the hiring committee might not even know that there are multiple ways to knit... but that's not the point), that I hiked to Machu Picchu and haggled at the Grand Bazaar in the same summer, or that I've been to seven different countries.

I don't think a resume says everything about a person - I don't know if it's supposed to.  At the same time, I think there should be more room to provide more context for someone's abilities - maybe the reason I didn't work the summer of 2011 is because I was traveling to Europe, traveling to help people, and learning how to act.  Work experience is important, yes, but so is life experience.  Hopefully everyone gets the chance to go out of their hometown - and if they do, they should take it.


Do I wish that I had given up one summer of travel for a summer of building my resume or something similar? No.  Otherwise, I wouldn't have stories.  I also wouldn't have the following pictures.