Right back where I started from

FIVE MONTHS AGO, everything was in total blur. I was totally lost, overwhelmed with the awaiting possibilities. Some call this the fresh-grad jitters. I didn’t know if I was to go with the flow or make my own flow and go. Interestingly, it was the very same feeling I had when I was about to join DevComSoc four years ago. At that time, Soc taught me to brace up and always expect the unexpected. I surely did and this still remains to be one of the greatest lessons I learned from the organization.

Expecting the unexpected
I was about to enter the corporate world when the unexpected happened.

Exactly ten hours before I signed my very first contract, I received an e-mail asking if I was still interested to work in Myanmar for the next five months. It all sounded like a joke. It’s a spam mail, I thought. I was about to delete it when it hit me—I did apply for the post a few months prior but it was all in haste and just out of curiosity. As a matter of fact, my résumé was so amateur it even included awards for spelling bees during my primary school days. The e-mail said that I was shortlisted for a post-disaster livelihood recovery and rehabilitation project in southern Myanmar. The very next day, I withdrew my application for the public affairs post and accepted the volunteer position.

Two weeks after receiving the e-mail, I flew to Yangon still expecting the unexpected. Upon arrival, we were introduced to the specifics of the work. My co-volunteers—three Burmese, a Cambodian, and a Filipina—were experienced NGO workers and project managers for different advocacy issues. Back then, I was only armed with my UP-brand of education and my experiences with Soc. This, I thought, was where DevComSoc’s great at—enhancing its members’ skills through various activities making them at par with those who are already in the field.

Grace under pressure
The project was spearheaded by the Tripartite Core Group, an umbrella organization for UN agencies, ASEAN, and the Myanmar government. It was established as part of the humanitarian efforts for the victims of Cyclone Nargis, the deadliest cyclone in Myanmar’s history. One could just imagine the extreme amount of pressure especially for someone who just got out of college.

As with Soc, we’re constantly bombarded with so much pressure but we still manage to stand above others. We’ve managed to develop each other’s coping mechanisms that most of us can easily juggle academic loads with Soc’s activities and still doing well with both. That doesn’t stop there—other members are also actively involved with other orgs, the student council, and some even in their part-time work. If not for Soc’s training, I would’ve easily succumbed to the pressure.

Redefining ‘real life’
With the help of International Development Enterprises-Myanmar, an international NGO working in Myanmar since 2004, we organized distribution activities for different agricultural inputs such as vegetable seeds, fertilizers, and power tillers to farm households in affected villages. Moreover, we also actively consulted and mobilized villagers for the construction of community-managed infrastructure projects, including footbridges and farm-to-market roads.

Organizing these is not so different with how we organize our activities in the organization. In Soc, we make sure that everybody’s readily involved in the process from brainstorming up until evaluation. What we do in Soc is what others do in the working world. What we have in our college days is as real as it can get. DevComSoc never fails to open doors of opportunities for its members to enrich their experiences and enhance their skills in a real world setting and I honestly couldn’t imagine how I would have fared in my first job if not for the Society.

To resident members, grab every opportunity Soc gives—and will continue to give—you. We should be humbled by the privileges we continue to enjoy because of our beloved organization. It is only through wholeheartedly serving the Society and embodying its ideals that we can truly repay what the organization has given (and will continue to give) to all members.

Padayon!

I LOVE DEVCOMSOC.