Choice: Education vs. Vocation

Choice: Education vs. Vocation
by: Ramlaurenz Sanchez

Choice, a simple word with very dire consequences. It can be as simple as picking your clothes, choosing your bath soap, picking up your pet but it can also haunt you beyond imagination. Choice can spawn “What Ifs” haunting us for life, What if I chose this? What if I picked that?

This word should best describe the conundrum going on every Junior high school student in the Philippines, as confusion arise on which tracks in senior high school to pick. For many years, college was the sure accepted way of landing a good job. Today, basic education offers a new choice, Skills. For years success for Filipino families culminates with a College diploma, the change is drastic and the choice is gargantuan. Every junior high school completer is faced with the choice between Academics vs. Skills. Academics, the knowledge packed highway to college or learning new Skills with the Technological Vocational and Livelihood Courses.

So, which is the best choice to make? Well, for me it’s simple, if I was in their shoes I’d pick skills over academics. I love learning new things. I love tinkering with my hands, making stuff, building things and more. Even without the promise of going abroad learning lifelong skills would be the best option. However, if one wants to become a professional like me, the story is relatively like mine. Taking the academics path and preparing for college scholarships, course offerings and more would be a key step towards becoming a professional. Both choices, DO NOT however carry the full guarantee that, when you take up Academics and proceed to college it would lead to the perfect job or a road that leads abroad. Thus, leads to the conundrum of which choice to make and the power of making the right choices in our lives.

Everywhere in the world, the power of this choice is echoed by every success story like that of Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world, despite of skipping college. Mark Zuckerburg, who after entering college would leave by his second year and start theFacebook.com, which is now the biggest social media site in the world and fortunately for Zuckerberg, making him one of the successful and richest in the business. Or the like of Arianna Huffington who successfully managed her way through different colleges and universities around the world and successfully established the Huffington Post, Lady Gaga who studied music and become one of the most successful singer in the industry or JK Rowling who studied the French and the Classics and came up with one of the bestselling novels of our time. Their life improved, maybe because of their education or the well use of their skills or maybe both. Who knows?

In the end, our lives are dictated by choices beyond whether we go to school or pursuing our passion. There’s more to choosing between a Bachelor in Arts versus becoming a blacksmith because in the end these choices are simply the beginnings of a very long journey called life. For students suffering from this conundrum my advise is but simple, follow the passion that you can sustain and love. Be yourself and be who you want to be, you can never be who you are not. Success is not measured by any college diploma, your proof of success is simply the mark you leave in your community. For parents, be the guide your children needs. Don’t force them into a path where they do not like nor have the passion to pursue, that will only make their choice and their lives harder. Enlighten them with the pros and cons to ease their choice, In the end, parents cannot make their children just like them, instead they should make their own path to success, just like Shifu said, in Kung Fu Panda 3, I’m not trying to turn you into me, I’m trying to turn you into you.