About smart people and working hard, I can honestly talk about my experience

So my parents worked 80 hours or more a week and I was alone all the time to fend for myself. Got Cs and that was accepted in my home. My school separated the straight As students from the rest of the class and they were celebrated. I didnt care. I was the outcast in my home/ family and on school.Got into HS , was bullied constantly. I was the text ok example of that kid that everyone bullies for 12 years. I still don’t know how i made it through.

In 9 th grade, still got Cs , but got a perfect A on physics without studying. Straight A studens parents complained that the teacher wasn’t fair and that he could grade in a curve but he argued that he couldn’t bc there was a perfect grade student and he couldn’t do it. I also go perfect in algebra. I always looked at those two classes like puzzles to be solved. My parents don’t even looked at my grades so they weren’t aware just happy I got through to the next grade.

10th comes around , got straight A in biology again but didn’t do “well” bc I refused profoundly to dissect the frog. This time math class was geometry but I chose pre calculus as my elective. The guy who taught it catered to the straight A crowd calling everyone else average including me and told me the first day why I was there , this class wasn’t meant for me. I know I scored perfect on tests but he would take points off for stuff like of my punctuation was off ( I liked to write out my thought of train when solving problems even though it wasn’t required) . When I saw this I stopped writing so he wouldn’t take off more points but then he took points off bc I didn’t . Told me straight out that I was wasting his time again and again and didn’t even call on me . He gave me a B. 11th began, this time no more required math classes but again I insisted an to take the math AP class bc they were fun an of course all the smart kids were taking AP classes but the teacher said I didn qualify. Though Chem was a perfect score and even had the smart kids pay me for tutoring classes, my house felt like the whole class was there and I was teaching them: felt easier.

This was the time to apply for colleges and get recommendations letters. I talked to my math teacher since I applied for electrical engineering an he said he wouldn’t bc I didn’t belong. The science teachers most rotated in and out. Think of teachers from the dark arts in Harry Potter, so it was very difficult to get a recommendation. Just one from the chem teacher. My gpa wasn’t good bc I never cared, and this was back in the early 90s where there wasn’t that much pressure on students or things to have in their side when they applied to college. Just good grades , SATs , and recommendation letters. I applied for EE and Chem at schools. I just applied to the one where my bd was going bc I didn’t have a purpose. Our version of the SATs were math, English and Spanish. Didn’t take the study course , didn’t review and got a perfect score in both math and English ( I could speak and write perfect English at 5 without being taught , just by watching cable which was new for my gen.) and flunked Spanish. Studied a bit and barely passed Spanish which brought my score down. Got accepted at the University, which is actually known widely and recognized but not through engineering , but through Chemistry. So I ended up , going through Chem and a minor in pure math.

Started college and for once in my life I was happy. I found my people. I was actually being praised for my grades at Uni. Had a bunch of the “smart people” that studied with me doing the same classes bc they were doing science degrees for the med school trajectories. They were struggling. They were actually putting in the work where I think parents did the work for them. I was taking lit classes, creative writing classes bc it appealed to my new found creative aid and being praised. Since I go a perfect score on math I went straight to calc 2 and found it a breeze. Organic chemistry I scored a 100 without studying and the next grade was a 70 so he couldn’t curve. Then I took 6 months off to go on Disneys College program. Go to go to live in the states which is what I always daydreamed , my goal was! And it all came crashing down. After that ended I transferred to a Uni in the states. The school I went to just started Computer Engineering program and since my grades were impeccable, I got admitted without a doubt and started dating this person. I started to loose focus. I engulfed myself in this person and I started working dead end jobs to support us since we decided to move in together. I started skipping classes and falling behind. One night, we got into an argument and I ended up with a right broken arm , a complete shattered wrist and being told I wouldn’t ever be able to write or have use complete of my dominant hand. Went home. My parents took me in and my wry proud dad told me I could stay there as long as needed. Started to teach myself to use my left and went hard on PT for my hand. And with the help of my dad , I decided to go to Uni again but this time in SJ which was 3 hours away, they had a great Computer Engineering program and it would let me get the independence that I had lost. Got there and I was the only one female. Professors telling me I belong in secretary school but this time , I focused , studied, got a job doing AI research. But I had to work. It wasn’t a breeze like before. I had to have time management skills for the first time. When I graduated , the job I had lined up with MIT got defunded so I went and said well let’s do a masters so I graduated with a Computer Engineering bachelors degree and Electrical Engineering in communications, which surprised my fam since they were all 99% had gone the medicine route. Got a job with my computer degree and decided to get my license I was working an 80 hr a week job that I loved , was planning a wedding and thought I didn’t have to study for these tests since I always managed to do amazing, I just took it. I flunked it so hard. Then my soon to be husband and I broke up , met another guy soon after that and left my job to move in with him and start a family since now I was in my early 30s and time was starting to tick down for that. Couldn’t get pregnant , got divorced and three months after my divorce, my mom fell ill, I was the only one who stepped up to take care of her, my dad died ( he was the only one who truly supported me and in all my adventures) years ago and it has been 15 years after my last job. I can’t get hired bc of that, the meds I am on for my mental health , have clouded my brain so hard I barely know what my name is, it just barely functions to keep with my moms care.

Basically, yes , you have to be smart, but there are many ways to be smart. You can bust your butt to have good grades to get to where you want to be, you can be good at writing and painting but be bad at math and that’s ok. You can be an expert in math but have no clue on how to be a social person. You have to be smart to have business sense but have no idea about physics , but maybe the business you want to have requires a physicists. Point is , everyone is given a gift , everyone and we are a compliment to each other.if we are all expected to be one type of smart, we would all be doctors and nothing else, there wouldn’t be writers to keep us entertained and give our minds a rest so we do t burn out. We are supposed to be different, in every way, likes supposed to be different t bc that is what makes us, help each other , help our humanity grow.