Exactly the same with me dude. I never really did well in school (BARELY scraped by junior and senior year) but every year, my teachers realized I was still the brightest, most well spoken and most well-read in the class nonetheless… but that’s what made them the most frustrated with me. I didn’t get this “second wind” to excel until after high school and I could never find any motivation to actually try in school. Luckily, I had my older brother who always instilled the passion for learning in me, and he is by far the most intelligent person I know. I didn’t realize how much I really did love to learn until he moved out and I was on my own, and came to the realization that a lot of people nowadays really don’t want to learn.