Jerry Jacobs is a 1oth grade student in a public high school in their town, Caine City. This means that by next year, he needs to choose a field of specialization as he goes to grade 11, then to grade 12, to be able to finish high school. This is the curriculum their government is using, that after high school graduation, the learners can either choose to pursue college, enroll in middle skills development, have their own business or be employed.
Anxious, Jerry doesn’t know which specialization he should choose. He remembers that he loves to read picture books when he was younger, and he knows that he is intelligent because he graduated with honors in grade school. But he thought, “How can these situations help me to choose? What should I choose?” Then, his mind goes back to his Character Education class in grade 7, about their lesson on multiple intelligences.
Jerry’s teacher said that in this theory, the more appropriate question is: ‘What is your intelligence?’ not ‘How intelligent are you?’ From the discussion, he learned that he is a visual person – someone who learns fast through visual information and is able to organize ideas. He has also learned that the areas related to this is arts, architecture and engineering. Knowing this, at least now he can just choose from the two specializations: Arts & Design or STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math). He thought of asking his friends about their choice and learned that his close friends would either want to become lawyers or engineers. So, he said to himself, “Maybe I should just enroll in STEM so that I will already have friends at the start of the class.” So that’s what he did and before he knew it, he graduated valedictorian in high school, together with other special awards.
Then he goes on to study at a technical school in a nearby city together, where he chose architecture course over engineering. He came to know more of himself during senior high school that he is more into designing houses or other buildings than overseeing design-to-completion process, which is more of the work of a civil engineer. And he is not into roads, dams and other related structure works anyway.
He would still love to have some of his friends from his high school class to go through with this new journey, since some of them enrolled also in this same school, but he thought, “Well, it is time to become mature. I am sure we will see each other during our vacant time.” The next thing he knew, half of his high school classmates enrolled with him in architecture course. He is so happy!
Having some people who he knows when doing things is very important for Jerry. It is not because he is unfriendly, but he is not that sociable either. It is from them that he gets courage and confidence especially in group activities, whether inside or outside school. Then when other people talk to him, that’s when he starts to socialize and make friends.
Jerry really enjoyed his course, with all the projects that they have to make, saying that he made the right choice. After graduation, he took the licensure examination and was able to be included in the top-ranking achievers. He was also invited later on to speak to the graduating class from his alma mater to give inspiration to students who are also about to embark on their life’s journey.
One thing that Jerry has learned in life is that it is important to know oneself – what you are good at. Knowing one’s interest and skills are very helpful when deciding what you want to be in life.
The end