It feels like I’ve been living a dream this past week, doing my TET-work practice here in ANEE. I originally wrote to the history department here at the University in the fall of last year, briefly mentioning that I was interested in the Ancient Near East. Prior to this, I had never even heard of ANEE but when my email was redirected here and I got an email about how I could in fact come here for the work practice, I was absolutely elated, to say the least. Unfortunately, that original time in the fall didn’t quite work, so we rearranged it so that I could come during the next work practice in the spring.
Now I have reached the end of my work experience week and I’m quite sad that it couldn’t have lasted longer. But as Dr. Seuss says: Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it has happened. And I have an extra reason to smile for, knowing I have a chance to come back one day. This week has been an absolutely wonderful experience for many reasons, and it has been useful to me in many ways.
Firstly, it has helped me clarify my path in the future. I feel very lucky to be a person who knows where I want to go and what things I want to work towards. This week has only made those goals clearer in my mind. It has given me a look into what this path would look like if I decided to embark on it. It has also given me a goal to work towards, something to keep my eyes on. It’s something I will certainly keep in mind when diving headfirst into the whirlwind adventure that is high school.
Secondly, it has fueled and strengthened my curiosity and inspired me to learn as much as I can while I have the chance to. It has taught me that every skill I learn along the way can be useful in some way, even though I can’t quite see it yet at the moment. This week has inspired me to pursue things I’m interested in and read up on things that fascinate me, even though there isn’t enough time in the world to possibly read every interesting book in the world. We must unfortunately wait for someone to invent a time freezing library to satisfy our curious minds.
Another important thing that this week has taught me, is the importance of having a kind and encouraging community around you. It has been wonderful to experience the sense of community here in ANEE this week. It has reminded me that everyone needs to take a break once in a while and not all conversations have to be serious, or on topic. The conversations I have taken part in here have been very refreshing, very enlightening and I have learned a lot from them. Even though you might think, at least I did, that being in a university would be stiff and very serious all the time, but the community in ANEE is very kind and I genuinely enjoy spending time here.
During this past week, I have attended multiple lectures, some of which I learned a lot from, some of which I hardly understood a word of, but all of which were interesting and fascinating in their own ways. I have taken on more bland tasks such as sorting through library catalogues and scanning thick books, but have been glad to be here doing it nonetheless, since it’s part of the experience. I have also spent hours just talking and asking questions, and those have been the most enlightening of all, but all this has shown me what this world is like and verified to me that, yes, I do what to come here in the future. Yes, this is the world I want to be part of. It has given me a picture of what I’m working towards and motivated me to keep going and not give up.