Thursday, May 21, 2009

What's the True Measure of Intelligence? (Page 3 of 3)

Jenora conceded!Lugina was the decided Valedictorian for the year. Lugina was so happy and so proud that she could tell her parents this great success.

What happened inside the Principal's office, they both told me. Jenora insisted that Lugina be the Valedictorian as she studies a lot. The Principal and our Adviser agreed and in fact, they have been planning to have the honor given indeed to Lugina but Jenora got the same high grades and extra curricular activities which made them confused and undecided. Everybody was happy by then. Jenora, as the happy-go-lucky person, she did not mind being the Salutatorian for the year. The three of us remained very good friends until the university years.

Thinking about those happenings in high school, after my two phone calls to those two closest friends of mine back then, and checking on their current status in life, made me realize that Jenora was the deserving intelligent person. She reached her dreams and she used her intelligence to advance herself and be successful.

On the other hand, I am very disappointed with what happened to Lugina. She threw her future away. With four children and no work makes her, as she said earlier, a real failure. I don't know why she had to marry so young and bring four kids without stabilising her financial status and her career firsr.

I know that this world is not all about money. But a little stability would not hurt, especially if someone plans to have four children. When I had that phone call with Lugina, I heard desperation in her voice; I heard that she herself is disappointed with her own acts and decisions. Now I realize that Jenora is even more intelligent in real life. It is not in the books! The intelligence in dealing with real life cannot be read. It cannot be learned inside the four corners of the school, or the university but it is earned by real intelligent people.

Jenora contributes better to this world: her intelligence, her innovative mind, her charity donations as she is earning much more than herself, she helps her family financially and many other good things that improve and help everyone else around her because she decided to be successful.

Lugina becomes a burden of society. So many children, she cannot even help herself, and worse that I can expect, the children would have to suffer given that the parents are not very stable financially. Their education and future would be at stake just because their mother decided to marry and have four of them without thinking of the consequences first.

Now I understant why it was so easy for Jenora to give up the honor as the Valedictorian and have it given to Lugina. It is not the honor itself that makes a person fulfilled. It's the life itself. Now that's real intelligence!