Dear Future Social Workers,
Last year I graduated with a Master of Social Work degree. I was an alright student, always getting relatively good grades and keeping my GPA slightly below a 4.0, but the truth is academia wasn't what I was in the program for. It turns out that I was there because I was driven, like many, to change the world.
I pushed every moment of everyday to create, innovative and develop every opportunity I could. Quickly I became the Vice President of our student organization and co-launched the most successful year of the organization's history. I drafted a constitution and pushed it through to ratification, and orchestrated two massive student events including the inaugural Social Change Summit. I was driven, I knew who I was, what I wanted and I felt limitless.
It was a bubble where as a student I had complete and total support. I was able to go to my mentor professors and say " HALP ME I'M LOST" or go just to trade reviews on the newest Chicago Restaurant Week find. In classes everyone was cognizant of not only how each person felt individually during a conversation, but how everyone else felt. Then you would process all of that, then process it more and talk about processing it and then talk about how you process it differently than other people. A lot of social work is processing all of the possibilities of how you and others feel then making an assessment. To be honest, that was not my cup of tea. It was all a little like this ...
The truth is that even if you struggle to embrace the processing and feelings and talking about how clients are " empty whiteboards waiting to be filled up" (this is a real statement that was made in a class and I thankfully did not throw up) you still take in all of these skills and they suddenly become an integral part of how you view the world. Specifically, how you begin to believe the world and people should interact.
This super supportive environment is split into two groups - clinicians and everybody else. I am biased as part of the latter group, but I think the "everybody else" is where it's at. This group is a collection of individuals that understands how everything connects and how micro, mezzo and macro become one beautifully chaotic mess. These are the people that want to address the mess on every single level because they are masochists who hate sleep.
Here are the things that these go-getters and high achievers who are out to claim the prized title of "change agent" thrive on: the limitless possibility of tomorrow and that no change comes without intense trust and bravery. I cannot tell you how many times I went to the president of the student organization and said " Listen I have this ridiculously crazy idea that will result in little to no sleep, we may not have the resources for it and it will probably be really hard with little to no chance for real success, but I think we should do it."
and her instant reaction was :
Then you know what happened? WE DID EXACTLY WHAT WE SET OUT TO DO!
(except the app .... #neverforget)
Why? Because we had people who had our backs no matter what. Who trusted us and knew that no matter the circumstances we were going to do something great and that we wouldn't stop until it was done.
Then May 6, 2015 happened. Graduation Day.
It was only a month after this day that I realized how much I relied on the bubble of the school of social work. How much I thrived on hours long conversations about current events, new research and social injustices. I thrived on the autonomy and ability to go all in knowing that even if I failed or made a mistake there were people there that had my back. I realized that while practicums taught me some pretty tough lessons about how the world worked, that I still thought " this can be different."
The truth is my dear future social workers, that outside of that bubble there is a real world and people in it who are not always (and sometimes never) concerned with your clients, your volunteers or you. They will not say something and then process it, or be vulnerable and admit they have messed up. They will say something awful and unethical and then just let it hang there, no processing and definitely none of this:
I can handle that because there are sucky people everywhere, but the toughest struggle is that there are social workers out there who no matter how much they disagree with what is happening, no matter how many closed door conversations, rolled eyes and whispered "bullshits," when it is time to stand up or shut up the truth is you may be the only one standing. That is what boggles my mind because social worker means advocate and advocates stand up. Advocates don't go numb because they fear conflict. They don't duck rather than take a punch.
So future social work grads, when May comes and you are walking into the doorway of your new organization I hope it is great. I hope you are supported, loved and that everything you are promised during your interview is true. However, for those that are handed the subpar end of the nonprofit spectrum I ask you to stand up. When you do this know that while there may not be a single person in that conference room or office that stands with you that no person who looks away in the face of conflict and wrong doing has ever changed the world for the better.
If you don't take the punch when someone needs you to, you are not an advocate, you are not a change agent and based on the opinion of this "everybody else-er" you're not a true social worker.
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