The career path of Compassion

Last night I sat in on a University undergraduate lecture on how to reach the Millennium Development Goals. I sat there and remembered fondly back to my Uni days. A time where we discussed the big questions; how can we solve world poverty and gender inequality and what is the essence of human nature? Outside my safe circle of like minded friends I was asked other types of questions; why worry so much about others, why are you studying something that wont pay you much when you finish, and of course the favourite one from my parents 'what are you going to do with your life'?

When I sat in that lecture theatre, the question echoed in my mind 'what am I doing with my life'? It was one of those questions I have always been uneasy and reluctant to answer. Once the lecture was over I talked with a few of the students. They asked me how they could get a job like mine, working with a development NGO. What did they have to study, what did they have to do? Well I started with that I have degrees in Nursing, Environmental Science & Philosophy and now studying at the Victorian College of the Arts. But I also told them I had never studied International Development or Advocacy in which I am employed right now. I saw the confusion move over the student faces. They wanted my job, they wanted to do good, and they wanted an answer on how to get there. I couldn't tell them.

On the drive home I thought to myself what am I doing with my life, what skills do I have that put me in the professional position I have? I could only come to one simple conclusion; I have chosen compassion as my career path. It may not have been coupled with much awareness but the past 20 years of traveling the globe, of studying, of sweat has come from a very clear and subconsciously defined career path. What a relief to have put a name to it!

One of the great risks of formal education is that it can disempower the intuition of students. If you can find an answer and pathway through study, through grades, it can lead you to a position of logical engagement. But is this a pathway to the Utopia many of us seek? I should say that the professionalisation of the aid sector and the engagement of the skills from a broad range of disciplines from medicine, engineering, journalism, agriculture and education has had many advantages and has positively impacted the lives of the most poor and vulnerable. However, if those skills are to be engaged at the right time and in the right way they must be lead by those on the career pathway of compassion. If we abandon our intuition and gut feeling for a sanitised version of humanity then we are surely lost. We need both.

So when I get asked next time at a BBQ or by my parents 'what are you going to do with your life', I will tell them I have chosen a very noble career path, it may not pay me well in monetary wealth, but it is abundant in many other gifts, and there is plenty of work going around. It is the career path of compassion.