After more than a month or being an intern in Federation of Free Workers, I may say that I have acquired a lot of lessons that I’m sure will be my advantage in the long run. Hence these are my lifelong learning I gained from a month long journey that I have been through.
1. Labor issues
Learning Development Communication takes a life long process since it seeks solution and progress to all the issues in our society. However, I admit that my advocacies are just confined to women’s rights and environmental protection that I was not able to recognize the need for labor advocates who will fight for the workers’ rights and promote decent work for all. FFW called my attention to pursue their rights by being exposed to a lot of seminars and trainings that cater to the needs of the workers.
My internship made me realize the vital role of the laborers in our country, especially nowadays as people prefer to seek jobs abroad, leaving a total decrease of our country’s production that gives a huge effect to our economy. Let us try to protect our workers and set a positive atmosphere in their workplaces so that they will become productive in their jobs.
2. “Money is like a hidden treasure”
As the controversial Yamashita’s treasure that is difficult to find, I learned how difficult it is to earn money. In school, our batch has been able to produce a lot of development projects and activities, and money never became a big issue to us. But I found out that it is really different in the real workplace, especially in a non-profit organization. I remember when our national president told us that FFW’s funding support was totally cut right after their recent national convention, and it was really hard for him to let the organization stand still. This made me realize that when conceptualize development projects, fund must be the first one to be taken into consideration. This trained me to be more resourceful enough to utilize all the feasible materials to be able to produce a particular project/activity without sacrificing its quality. This time, I may say that my school taught me how to reject mediocrity in productions, as my internship supplied a resourcefulness module to organize projects that are not costly.
3. Dealing with people
Meeting people may be not new to me (since I was able to deal with different people even before) but I still want to include this as part of my life long learning. Being an intern in a trade union group, you have to meet different workers (from blue to white collars) and no matter how different they are, all of them are advocating for the same concern – DECENT WORK FOR ALL. Let us all put in mind that we should never differentiate people according to their lifestyle and financial capabilities because most of the time, the more different the people are, the more similar thoughts and insights they have in their minds.
4. WORK
During my month-long stay in FFW, aside from getting familiar with the technical labor terms I have encountered, I learned the true and concrete meaning of work. People seek jobs to earn a living. But basically, salary is not the main reason why we are working. Work is our training ground for us to be able to develop ourselves as human persons. Hence, people deserve decent jobs for them to be productive enough with their lives. Work should not just determine how much money we earn, but how much we love our lives and ourselves.
5. POLITICS
This time, I have proven that I am still enclosed in a world so imaginary. And as I took a quick peek to the real one, I have noticed a lot of unexpected differences and I guess I have to set an ample time to get used to it in the future. No one can ever escape politics, especially in the issue of development. People are eager for credits, looking for profits without giving full attention to their main concern. I know I cannot do anything to stop this, but I know I can be a role model to my fellow youth. By being an inspiration to the younger ones, there will be a brighter generation ahead of us, and I'm praying that people of my age will do the same way too.
6. Learning to commute
I’m glad to realize that I did not just learn in workplace as I even gained knowledge from the factors outside my internship. Learning to commute is the most hassle yet the one of the best experience of being an intern. Somehow, I was able to familiarize routes around Metro Manila. This also gave me confidence as I learned to be confident in public places that I was able to go to the mall by myself by riding a public vehicle. It may be funny to some but for me, it was indeed a great achievement that I will never forget.
7. FOOD
This should be included in the PERKS section, but my internship really taught me to eat a lot. Since attending numerous seminars and events forced me not to skip meals, I got my BMI record back to normal (from being an underweight). This should not be a part of this article, but I would like to thank my internship for keeping my health back in the normal track.
8. I get to know more about life. REAL LIFE. And this was the ultimate life long learning that I've acquired from my month long journey.
