Founder and director of Diamonds for Peace (DFP), Chie Murakami, delivered a lecture on pursuing a global career at Tamagawa Gakuen High School on 14 February 2019 in Tokyo. The global career course invites practitioners working for international organization as guest speakers so that the high school students can learn what their jobs are like and consider their future employment.
Chie first shared her experience of learning English from junior high school to undergraduate. She thought she was good at English when she was a student at a public junior high, however, she had a hard time to catch up with the classes after she entered private high school where the majority of her classmates had grown up overseas and were fluent in English. Chie also talked about how she had numerous jobs after graduating from graduate school in the US with a degree in international development. Although her various professions didn’t seem to be related to each other at that time, all of the different skills she learned and experiences gained have now been all connected as if they are on one line.
Chie’s message for the high school students:
“It happens to many people that they realize the profession is not for them after selecting it. It is okay to try another thing and change your profession. The more you have experience, the more you get to know yourself. Then you are able to find what you can keep doing or what you want to devote your life to. “Don’t be afraid to “try” in anyway. You would see your next step all after that. You can always make another choice and start it all over again. There is nothing wrong with it. You will really regret later if you don’t try.
You may think that you have to find what you like and who you are before you graduate from high school. You are very lucky if you can find those while you are a high school student. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. You can try things one by one that interests you and enjoy each experience. Everybody has his/her own pace to find their way and there are many chances for you to know the real world in the future.“
Note: She delivered this message in Japanese context that high school students tend to think that they have to find out what they want to do in the future and decide what they will major at university.