For the past three weeks, have been interning at an advertising agency called Orakle Multimedia Ltd. I hoped to learn a lot and acquire new skills in the advertising and design world. Rather, I was taught more valuable lessons than learning to design my own font and mastering the Adobe programs.
There was one coworker that I had a difficult time getting along with. Every morning when I showed up to work, he wanted to argue about a different topic for hours on end. He would end each battle by eating my lunch. I don’t get angry that often, but when someone eats my lunch, things grow dark. My frustration grew each day. I demonstrated an all-new level of hangry. I found myself altogether irritated from dawn to dusk. After a few days of being chronically cranky, I re-evaluated my feelings of hostility and was able to learn something valuable.
Our cultures may be incredibly different, but in the end we are people. I had to understand that these episodes of “arguments” were more of intellectual discussions stemmed from curiosity. My coworker was interested in these various topics and wanted to discuss our opinions. Our beliefs were polar opposite. I have never had a problem with opposing views, but I did have a problem with factless, insensitive slander. What I see as inappropriate will not always be synonymous to what someone else may see as inappropriate. My coworker was simply expressing his opinion in the best way he could, and who am I to say his personal beliefs were wrong? I had to get past his word choice, and understand where he was coming from. It was shallow of me to judge this man by the connotation of his words rather than the content of his statements. English was not his first language, and I expected him to know it as well as I did. Once I was able to acknowledge and accept our differences, it was easy to see these situations in a new light. Though we may come from different parts of the world, we are both people with the same blood running through our veins.
This same coworker put me on a campaign for Ghanaian Parliament. A recent survey showed that less than 8% of Ghanaians were confident in their government. This campaign is meant to create a cultural revolution by educating the people and building voter efficacy. I was told to present a bundle of communication strategies for the campaign. Attached are slides from my presentation.