Things that make me frustrated
Bachelor degrees, master degrees, PhD degrees, any paper that you need to have on your CV to prove that you are intelligent and capable.
“Capable”, a word someone described me with when I told him I wanted to study journalism. “Of course, I guess you are capable of that”, but he wasn’t sure of course. Behind his sentence laid his doubt, as he was obsessed with correcting my grammar mistakes in Dutch when we texted for a while.
But, apart from that. I never mean to underestimate the hard work and dedication of students and professionals who spend long years reading, researching, collecting, concluding and pour their hearts and minds into their graduation project and adding that up to the field they are specialized in.
What annoys me is missing this one paper or title on your CV that proves you are intelligent enough to get hired and be taken seriously.
A friend of mine shared on Facebook the result of one of these lame quizzes. “Modelling is the job you will succeed it.” Her mom reacted: “My sweetheart, no wonder your beauty is ideal for modelling, but let’s look forward to your graduation as an engineer, and even your PhD degree, my intelligent creature!”
Yes, for sure engineering requires a high IQ level and a vision of its own, but how would a model feel when she reads such a comment? Knowing that already the whole society thinks she’s dumb and being good-looking is the only quality she has which would fade away by time, and therefore she will have no value because ‘she’s empty from the inside, brainless and only poses for pictures.’
We are still fighting materialism and the objectifying of humans (women in particular). Our value and worth is not measured by how pretty we are and how high we score in the marriage market. But does that mean that we have to become the opposite?
Our beauty is our inner beauty, our intelligence, our independence...etc.
But why in order to prove that, do we have to discard make-up artists, models, hairdressers and people (women) who have a different kind of intelligence? Is a person (a woman) who’s an engineer/doctor/scientist/ CEO ...more valuable than a human (a woman) who practices a profession that doesn’t require going to a fancy university?
So back in the classroom, where I died to get into, after years of sleepless nights trying to figure out what is my real passion, after moving to another country, learning its language, standing up on my feet again and started my bachelor in journalism while my colleagues and age mates are graduating. Years. Me, who rarely wants one thing for more than a day. I got into it, I got started.
“It is advised to do another study next to this one,” advised the teacher. “Here you learn how to practice journalism, writing, filming, approaching your resources...etc.”
Apparently that’s the plan of half of my classmates. They are planning/ already studying some major direction in politics, anthropology, sociology… and doing the thing I discovered I am passionate about ‘aside’.
And that, ladies and gentlemen makes me frustrated. I will need another fancy paper to prove I am intelligent and an expert in my field.
