There's no real point or interest or practical application to this post, I just thought of another one of those things that I wish I'd been able to articulate 10 years ago, so I'm writing it down before I forget.
I had a lot of pressure when I was a teenager to go to science or engineering or computers, because it was fashionable at the time to "encourage" women to go into those fields. However, at 16 I came to the realization that I am very well-suited to translation. This led to a redoubled effort on the part of certain parties to convince me that yes, I really could be an engineer. Their primary supporting argument was that I was good at math/science/computers.
The point is not whether or not I was good at math/science/computers. My marks were certainly respectable - with the exception of OAC chemistry (my lowest OAC mark (of 12) at like 76%) I got in the 80s without significant effort and in the 90s if I put some work into it.
No, the main point was that I was (and may still be) exceptionally good at languages.
In my maths and sciences, I was in the top 15 in the school (population 800ish over 5 grades), maybe in the top 10, and there was tight competition for the top spots. But in languages, I was consistently, every year, the top student. There was no jockeying for the position, no heated competition with my fellow langlings. I walked in, did my work, did the mandated amount of homework (but made no exceptional effort), and walked out at the top of my class.
I had this exceptional talent, I'd found something relevant to it that I wanted to study, and translation struck me as "Yes! I could do that!" as no other career path had before. (Every other career path I'd considered, I would have had to blindly trust that my education would make me able to do it. Translation I just knew I could do it, and it turned out that I was right.) I wasn't lacking any confidence in my abilities in male-dominated subjects, I had just pragmatically realized that I was better in other subjects, which happened to be female-dominated. I didn't need to be reassured that I was good enough at the male-dominated subjects, I already knew that I was good enough. But I also knew that I was far, far, far, better than "good enough" in languages.
Now that I've gloated enough about my nascent adolescent langling skills, so let's fast-forward a bit and see what happens to the top student in high school.
In university, I made great effort in the classes that deserved it, and slacked off in the classes that didn't. I ended up being second in my small (under 20 people) class of translation students. Perhaps, with more effort in the classes I slacked off in, I could have beaten out the guy who came in first, perhaps not, but I can't think of anyone I'd rather lose out to. At any rate, we both came out with the same job offer, but only the two of us got that specific job offer. As of graduation day, we were the only two in the class with jobs in the field. So the top student in high school becomes, from one perspective, the #2 student in university, but, from another perspective, the lowest-ranked student to still be recruited right out of university. Whoever was #3 was not offered a job.
Now, with that job and a few years' experience, I am generally holding my own among my co-workers, all of whom have more experience than me (their "more experience" ranging from a year more to a lifetime more). I am in no way exceptional, it's quite possible that I might be the worst in the office (which would only be fair, since I am the newest and the youngest), but I am generally competent, doing what's expected of me, producing adequate work. So #1 in high school is downgraded to "adequate and competent, but unexceptional, and with maybe one or two areas for improvement" in the workplace.
This makes me wonder what would have happened if I had gone into math/science/engineering, like I was being pressured to. Instead of being #1 going in, I was maybe #12. So how much footing would I have lost through university? How much additional work would I have had to put in to get by? Would my internships have resulted in an employer who wanted to hire me, or an employer who wanted to avoid me? Would I even have qualified for internships at all? Did the people, especially the teachers, who were pressuring me to choose a male-dominated career path even think of this?
2 comments:
My take is that many teachers (and others, but teachers, in particular) believe they are not quite doing their job if they don't try to convince you to step outside your comfort zone.
You may be completely content and happy at finding a field that allows you to apply something you're exceptionally good at.
But they see a an excellent language student who is also pretty good at math/science/computers and who has shown an ability to be beyond "pretty good" if you put some work into it.
Meantime, their superiors or advisors are likely pushing them to join in on the fashionable encouragement of women into these male-dominated fields. Who better to target for this than one of the top overall students in the school? By being smart and female to boot, you made yourself a likely suspect. :)
The problem being that when you can get acceptable (to yourself) marks without applying major effort, you never develop the ability to consistently apply major effort for long periods of time. I simply do not have it in me. I had to do it for three out of the past four weeks at work, and I was a big mess of stress and loose ends and cystic acne and weight gain, and I literally could not do anything else. I went to work, I gave it my all for 8 hours, I came home and recovered in the hope (without certainty) that I would be better for the next day. I could feel that my immune system was on edge, and if I'd had to keep it up for another week I would have gotten sick.
If I had done my university in an area that required that much effort, I would have had a heart attack or a nervous breakdown before I managed to graduate. I cannot give it my all every day any more than I can lift 300 lbs., although I didn't consciously realize this in high school, so bad things would have happened if those teachers had won.
Post a Comment