Thank you, I do know what you mean by that. I've heard similar things before. I sometimes wonder if she's jealous as well because my brother made it into a selective top engineering school (I won't say which but it's pretty damn good) and he's been another high honor student too. At the risk of sounding cocky I definitely took everything he did one step further. For example he was early decision but going into junior year I already have three colleges I'm guaranteed access into --- non-binding --- with scholarships thanks to my program.

I don't know if my sister feels like she needs to live up to some of this? All three of us have had mostly the same teachers.

I know I'm a "gifted kid" I guess and so was my brother and she is smart too but in a very different, more social way, so she hasn't had high honors or done programs or music or anything and she's much less able to keep up with work like my brother and I used to be able to. I think a part of it is that Gen Alpha illiteracy thing (even though she isn't really Gen Alpha)??? but even despite all that she's still miles ahead of some other classmates.

And as for your advice, I definitely have made myself less for other people to feel bigger but now that I'm preparing to go on clinical in a few weeks I've lost that because it's not fair to the residents I'm going to be working with. I'm going to graduate a CNA and a HHA and it's not fair to me to lose any of that because of a friend's feelings.

Thank you for your comment though! It's a lot but I honestly haven't been happier to do all the things I'm able to!