Social work can be rewarding field, spiritually and emotionally. The feeling you get from helping others achieve their potential is a feeling like no other.

Many students (and I was one of them!) go into the field of social work with notions of saving the world. They take the classes, read the books, see the documentaries, and hear the horror stories. We read "A Child Called It" and immediately have dreams of going into the work force and saving all those poor, abused children.

Well, I have news for you: IT'S JUST NOT LIKE THAT.

Here's another news flash for you, this one is a bit more harsh: YOU'RE NOT GOING TO SAVE THE WORLD AS A SOCIAL WORKER. You probably won't even change it.

Instead, this is what will happen:

Your efforts will go seemingly unnoticed as you plod along, day by day, with at least 30 other people giving you daily reminders of how much worse off they are than you. Every day, you will feel unappreciated in some way - but mostly financially, because YOU WILL NEVER BECOME RICH THROUGH SOCIAL WORK. You'll be lucky if you maintain middle-class status.

Every day will bring a new crisis to deal with, new problems, new headaches, and new heart aches. Clients will come and go - some will get better, some will not. Some will annoy you to no end for years to come - sometimes the memory of them will annoy you even after you've moved on to a new job. You will be stressed out and will freak out and maybe even cry occasionally. You will be threatened and coerced and manipulated. Your supervisor will be called if you are 5 minutes late, or if you had to miss an appointment to deal with an emergency. You will mostly likely get to know every emergency room in your county and the staff in doctors' offices and pharmacies will know you by sight.

You will learn how to navigate through any and all government agencies, hoping someday you will be able to do so with minimal annoyance and time but never quite achieving that particular goal. You will argue with these agencies and rant that their policies don't make sense, because most times they end up hurting the people they're claiming to want to help. The people at these agencies will know your name and your voice, but most likely never your face, though you will laugh and share stories with them.

That's the best part - the laughter. You will laugh with your coworkers and with the staff at other agencies. You will laugh at meetings and in the office. You wil l laugh on the phone and in person. You WILL laugh with your clients. They will share stories with you and you will laugh with them. They will trust you and look to you for guidance and support, and you both will laugh. They will move up in the world, achieve their goals, and live better lives - and you will laugh, and you will remember. You will remember why you came into the profession in the first place: the desire to help, to heal, and to save.

So, you won't save the world. You may, however, make a difference in the lives of one or two people - and in the end, that's really all that matters.

Learn more about this author, Valerie L.
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