Thursday, April 05, 2007

Dreams, Money, and Opportunity

I have been thinking a lot about what to do when I'm not in school over the summer and when I graduate in December. Ideally, I would like to work for an international non-profit and gain some experience in the field which I could use later in studying international law. Ideally. But it's turning out to be very difficult to turn my idea into practice.
All the non-profits I have looked into have plenty of volunteer opportunities and internships available. The problem is -- they are all unpaid. I am trying to pay my way through my last semester in graduate school, and there is no way I can afford to live in Washington or New York, or to travel overseas without a source of income. How are people interested in working for non-profits going to get the requisite experience to get a paying job if they don't have the money saved?
I have a lot of friends who are doing exactly what they want to do with their lives. I am jealous of them, not because they accomplishing their goals, but because they are doing it without having to worry about who's paying for them to accomplish their dreams. These friends are out traveling the world, applying to the most expensive schools, volunteering and interning for free in many countries, and they don't have to worry about where their money is coming from or what will happen to them if they don't succeed. They know they have a financial safety net -- either through their families or inheritances. They can pursue their dreams because they are not constrained by their finances.
How can those people who are not as lucky get their lives on the path to success? Do you try to make enough money and push your dreams to the backburner with the idea of coming back to them when you are financially stable; or do you throw caution to the wind and pursue your dreams even though there will be noone to catch you if you fall? Why isn't there a simple, paid internship alternative that eliminates the problem altogether? The way it works now just reinforces the concept that money, in too many situations, defines opportunity.

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