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On High School
16 years ago
I ran into (into, not over with a car, unfortunately) someone I knew from high school. She was valedictorian and distinguished graduate from my class. Straight A's, 4.0 and all that. She had recently come home for summer. I asked where she worked (not really caring, but wanting to measure how low she'd go for work), and her answer suggested she planned to stay there at her job for the winter. Knowing her school to be far away, thus ruling out a work-commute to school, I asked if she intended to return for her senior year. She replied that she will not return to school. Hmm.
She had failed out of college. She was not smart enough. Hmm. Interesting, says I, the student who solomnly vowed never to lift a finger outside of the 8-hour school day, who still passed with a 2.9, as opposed to Ms. Busybody who worked hours each night to complete every homework assignment, each task, perfectly as she could. She had no friends, no social life, not even a remarkable personality to speak of. She developed the skills to take a very simple assignment and complete it fully en mass. When the first assignment at college landed upon her desk requiring her to think, not regurgitate, it all went downhill.
Now, the kid who spent his high school days playing DnD and video games with friends is breezing through college with a 3.5, on his way to being put in charge of USAF spy satellites and nuclear missiles, so that in his evenings he can play more DnD and video games with his nerdy buddies. The girl who spent her days studying, working hard, eschewing life for pointless tasks and empty praise from teachers, will spend the rest of her life working hard and eschewing life for flipping burgers, manning a cash register, or some other degrading task for someone as "smart and hard working" as she.
That and she's fat now, whereas I am no longer. Oh, the irony.
She had failed out of college. She was not smart enough. Hmm. Interesting, says I, the student who solomnly vowed never to lift a finger outside of the 8-hour school day, who still passed with a 2.9, as opposed to Ms. Busybody who worked hours each night to complete every homework assignment, each task, perfectly as she could. She had no friends, no social life, not even a remarkable personality to speak of. She developed the skills to take a very simple assignment and complete it fully en mass. When the first assignment at college landed upon her desk requiring her to think, not regurgitate, it all went downhill.
Now, the kid who spent his high school days playing DnD and video games with friends is breezing through college with a 3.5, on his way to being put in charge of USAF spy satellites and nuclear missiles, so that in his evenings he can play more DnD and video games with his nerdy buddies. The girl who spent her days studying, working hard, eschewing life for pointless tasks and empty praise from teachers, will spend the rest of her life working hard and eschewing life for flipping burgers, manning a cash register, or some other degrading task for someone as "smart and hard working" as she.
That and she's fat now, whereas I am no longer. Oh, the irony.
Oh, and I rarely did any homework outside of school either. I mostly did it in the "all you have to do is show up" class (because you always had at least one each semester), and I still got into a fancy private college. Yay slacking.