the name that inspires!
We were interviewing candidates to become accredited fire watchmen. The next applicant was this male guy who entered our conference room immediately after the next guy went out. Our colleague said, “your name, please…” while I was ready to listen his name on the list of applicants , he answered in a confident voice, “I am Jennifer Cosep.” He surprised me with his name.
I could not afford to lose this question, “why do you think your parents chose your name, Jennifer when in fact there is no doubt that you are male?”. That was the same question he asked from his father when he found him in a very far place 20 years ago. His father left him when he was few months old. His parents are both illiterate. His name, Jennifer was just plucked from the air. The same name that bothers him when he was still schooling. He remembered how he was embarrassed when his name was included in the girls listing when he was still in grade school. Until now, his social security system ID is still temporary because the government employee doubts his name. He has encountered a lot of painful experiences with his present name. There is still a pending case that he needs to follow up regarding his birth certificate, other records and so on and so forth which is related to his name. He could not afford to change the name because of the tremendous bureaucratic requirements in the government coupled with his meager income who could not afford to pay some processing fees.
When he was about to exit from the interview, I and my colleague have the same assessment that he should pass the accreditation because he has a very good score in the examination and he was very alert during the interview. It is not because of the name, “Jennifer” but he shows his knowledge and competence during the interview.
When we advised him to submit his photo for his accreditation the next day, he immediately opened his pocket and showed his photo if it is acceptable. We noticed that there is a name printed at the back of his photo, “Jennifer – MALE”.
When he was about to close the door, he told us, “at last, my name inspires me!”
