Not 100% sure I'm not Stupid

So, picking up where I left off, I had the proverbial happy childhood. I went to school and really enjoyed the public school experience. Classes were pretty easy, though from time to time I would struggle with things most others found simple. One thing that stands out is the problem I had working with percentages; specifically, converting fractions into percentages and doing word problems involving percentages. Finally Mom had to get the college daughter of a co-worker to show me some tricks, and eventually all was well. I think that was around 8th grade. Somewhere around that time, I also developed a keen dislike to being perceived as "smart." I was entering that troubled time known as adolescence, and in my high school "smart" guys didn't get the girl - particularly "smart" guys with thick glasses, HUGE feet, and parents who didn't give in to pleas to be allowed to do everything the other kids were doing. Anyway, I stopped raising my hand so much in class (not that it mattered much; whenever the class was stumped, I invariable got called upon by the teachers), and distanced myself from any behavior that could be labelled "geeky". I must've done a good job, because by the time I got to college, NO ONE thought of me as "the smart guy". I was perfectly content to focus on the social aspects of college life, just as I did in high school. Unfortunately college classes were a wee bit harder than the classes at good ol' Clio High School.

In reality, I did think I was very smart when I was in high school. It would've been pretty hard not to after hearing it for 18 straight years. The best summers I had were the summers I participated in Duke University's Talent identification Program, where I was housed with kids who'd taken the SAT in 7th grade and had scored above a certain percentile on the SAT. If I remember correctly, I scored an 830 or so (almost all of that was Verbal; my math score was in the low 300s). I realized quickly that I was nowhere near the top of the food chain there, and I was perfectly content. I was free to release my inner nerd! There were 15-year olds who were earning college credits there; I think most of the participants either ended up attending Duke or one of the Ivy League schools. Now, I don't think I'm so smart. Many of my life decisions are evidence of that. Actually, I guess most of my life decisons would land me in the "stupid" category. Also, I think my ability to remember random facts, and to know a little bit about a lot of things, was misconstrued as "smartness". I am not very analytical, and I learn that more and more with each passing day of grad school. If you need someone to memorize someone's email address though, then I'm your guy.

It's funny watching people's reactions when they find out I'm in grad school. The peeps who knew me from back home pretty much expected me to go off and become a lawyer or doctor or something that required an advanced degree. The peeps who know me from my Clemson undergrad days, or from the 6 years I was on academic "hiatus", well they tend to look as though they'd been told that the earth is indeed flat.