Some of Y’all Were Never Told You Were Gifted as a Child and It Really Shows
I see you. You’re the one walking across the Quad without a glazed look in your eyes. I see you with your hand not raised in HUM discussion because you recognize that perhaps your comments aren’t all genius and that other people can contribute. I see you going to bed without crying yourself to sleep.
There’s something I want you to know.
I hate you.
When I was in middle school, I was showered with compliments. “Sam, you’re so smart!” “Sam, you’re the best!” “Sam, you can do anything!” And those lies made me who I am today: an emotionally unstable underachieving piece of shit. And that’s ok.
But you. You think you can just walk in here and act like you don’t own the place. Like you’ve never had your world crash around you because you realized your “gifts” were not a substitute for effort and you couldn’t coast through life just because you enjoyed reading the Percy Jackson series.
You spent your childhood years learning proper study techniques and you discovered that trying hard was the best way to succeed. And what did that accomplish? Cool, you’re probably academically prepared and mentally capable of handling an incredibly intellectually rigorous environment, loser. How dare you have an accurate assessment of your own abilities! I, on the other hand, get to develop alcoholism as I cope with that fact I will never meet my parents’ very realistic expectations.
You didn’t peak in middle school, and the best years of your life are still ahead of you. And for that, I despise you. You disgust me.
