Interpersonal Intelligence

As Howard Gardner described, people have multiple intelligence. Although the theory is not well researched, experience can confirm his conclusions. I feel that I posses the following intelligences: existential , interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic and some musical. My interpersonal intelligence has been developed and is my strongest intelligence out of those listed.

Growing up in a military family provided me the wonderful opportunity to move around and make a lot of friends. Despite the opportunities it provided, moving around during such a formidable time was difficult. Like all children peer acceptance and social comparison was vital to my development. Changing the demographic of my peer group and environment has made me quite adaptable. I had to constantly make new friends, adapt to established groups of people and forge new relationships that were not guaranteed to last while being authentic.

In addition to these experiences, I was granted the ability to feel other people. Some would call it empathy. In order to protect myself, I learned to not take on the pain of the world but rather use this ability to relate to people. I find it easy to understand where people are coming from on a specific issue or in relation to their background. Sometimes I can understand someone's point of view so clearly that I need check myself to know my point of view, as to not confuse their truth for mine. My ability to understand people, combined with a friendly, open demeanor has helped me tremendously gain friendships with people who are reserved or hard to understand. I think this intelligence will help me be a wonderful teacher for students and parents, as I can be sensitive to students' unspoken needs.