A former intern of ours shared the eye-opening experience he had with our surrogacy agency. This is what he had to say:
To be perfectly honest, I didn’t really know what I signed up for when I agreed to an internship at WSS; all I knew was that I’d be working at a law office that offered decent pay. Little did I know the impact this amazing agency would have on me, and all of the life lessons that would come along with it…
On my very first day, I was asked about my past work experience as a piano teacher/delivery boy/McDonald’s cashier – a far cry from helping people attain genetically-related offspring that they can’t conceive on their own.
Everything I knew about surrogacy up until this point was something I had learned from a five-minute Vice News bit entitled “Outsourcing Embryos.” The video covered the multi-billion-dollar international surrogacy business, discussing how hopeful parents-to-be were turning to foreign countries such as India to start their families. It’s an unfortunate realitythat surrogacy costs in America can exceed $150,000.
I can only imagine the agony a couple must feel when they’re unable to conceive, but I was amazed to learn that a woman can be artificially inseminated with an embryo so that the baby she carries has zero genetic ties to her. Learning about this made me proud of modern science – and happy for all those who cannot conceive for themselves. Assisted reproductive technology has truly brought millions of people profound joy through childbirth, and I was really proud to be a part of that.
Then I met everyone from the all-female office, and I knew that I’d be in for an experience! But despite any concern about being the only guy, I quickly found that everyone was incredibly friendly and personable, and it was refreshing to see that they all really loved their jobs. Conversations seemed to flow naturally, and I found that our opposing genders made no difference; we were all friends.
The scope of my work at WSS was varied; I took on responsibilities from filing and data entry to writing and research, learning a lot along the way. My favorite tasks were the ones I learned the most from, with my absolute favorite being writing. Whenever a surrogacy-related topic turned up on the news, I was eager to learn about it and report back.
The most important things I learned through my experience were life skills, mainly perseverance. I learned to keep progressing despite difficulty or frustration. Although some of my more repetitive tasks could sometimes be fatiguing, I was happy to find that they helped me build up my endurance.
Perhaps the greatest takeaway from my experience was mastering the art of functioning in an office atmosphere. There is an important balance I learned to strike between being productive and being social, and I learned that it is actually possible to be a friendly yet efficient worker. In fact, meaningful conversations can be held amidst tasks, and you can still get things done while contributing to a positive office morale.
As my experience came to an end, I realized that work can be about so much more than making money. True job satisfaction is about helping others and contributing to the world in a meaningful way. And that’s exactly what I got from my experience at Worldwide.
This is the work that’s truly worth doing.
