Finding your strengths

Watching CPAN Washington Journal this morning, which featured two high school teachers talking about the High School U. S. Government Exam and its importance to students getting into colleges, brought back memories of my first encounter with understanding the US government.

It was my freshman year in college as a foreign student from Hong Kong. For some reason, I was taking a US Government course. Since Hong Kong was a British Colony then (and would remain so until 7/1/1997), I had no personal experience of local, state and federal governments, no idea of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. Everything was strangely new and exciting about that US government course. I had to study very hard and I got an A on the course. My American classmates who had personal advantages were surprised how natural I came to know the subject.

In fact, history, government and literature were my best subjects in my first year of college. I still love them today.

I have often wondered how my life would turn out if I had pursued what was naturally easy and appealing to me instead of choosing "safe", left-brain oriented majors in computer/information science and electrical engineering.

Would I have been happier, more successful? Luckily, it's still not too late to ponder this kind of questions now that I am retired from IBM with most of my mental, physical faculties still working well enough.

In May, LPG will focus on the idea of finding and focusing on one's strengths.