On experiences and stereotyping

Something I find really interesting is that this week, very little has happened to me personally.  I've watched a lot of YouTube videos, moved to the dorm I'll stay in over the summer, played dumb flash games on the Internet, applied for a few jobs.

Outside the walls of my dorm room, however, bigger things have happened.  The shootings in California happened last week, for instance; this has sparked a lot of controversy and discussion that I'm sure you can find online if you look up 'Elliot Rodger.' You can probably find his manifesto somewhere online as well. I've only read a few pages; I may read a bit more, but I think I'm getting the gist of it - he hates women and he needs to stop writing with disagreeing verbs. (For the record, I'm reading a copy of it here.)

It's an interesting read, I'll give him that, but I think part of Rodger's issues come from lack of apology. He stumbled into a girl at summer camp and she pushed him and swore at him; she hung out with the popular kids and didn't apologize later. Rodger didn't say he was mad because she didn't apologize - he was mad because a popular guy he had hung out with was now fraternizing with this mean girl.

I'm no expert in the field, so I'll leave the psychoanalysis to any psychology major willing to take it up. It's probably a fascinating topic.

I think that it's important to remember, though, that a few negative instances should not define one's views on an entire gender. For example, my girl scout troop took a trip to New York City near the end of eighth grade. We did a bunch of tourist-y things, including seeing a Broadway show. We took the metro back; since it was late, there was at least one person who was visibly not sober. To make a long story short, every female on our end of the car - even the six fourteen-year-olds - was offered a bouquet of flowers by a man who was clearly high.
The important thing to remember is that this is an isolated incident. That remains the only time I have been offered anything by someone hyped up on drugs; that is not the only time I have been offered flowers. Should I be wary of every man bearing flowers as a possible drug addict? Should I avoid going on the New York Subway? Should I be bolder about going on the New York Subway at night? After all, the worst that's ever happened to me is that an inebriated individual tried to relieve himself of a bouquet. They seemed to be nice flowers.

Experience is relative.

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.