BY Me’Lyea Burton
LifeAtStart.com Reporter
Many people think it’s so easy to be a smart kid. You get good grades, homework comes at ease, and the teachers seem to be fond of your learning abilities. What could possibly be wrong about being a smart kid? Yes, it seems like it all runs smoothly for them, but everything is not what it seems.
All my life, I’d been a little more advanced than most of my peers. I began to walk and talk when I was around eight months, when most don’t take their first steps until nine. I started kindergarten at four years old, most start at five or six. I was in honors classes every year and never got anything lower than an A.
When I was in the sixth grade, I got my first B. My parents were so mad and I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I’d always been a straight A student, but I didn’t think a B was that bad. At that moment, I knew how hard it was to actually be smart. I had set the bar so high, that anything below, even if it was still good, was looked at as me not trying hard enough.
As I got older, I struggled to maintain my role of a straight-A student. It was hard for me to constantly see my parents disappointed, but I was trying the best I could. I wasn’t failing, but since I was used to As, I felt like I wasn’t trying hard enough.
It’s actually a lot more stressful to set high expectations the first time around. When you set the bar low, it’s easier and more appreciated to reach higher. Along with the stress of parents, you have teachers who also get disappointed when you don’t do your best, peers that either make fun of you or try to use you because of your grades, and then worst of all, you have yourself. You hate to fail, if you aren’t at your best, you feel like the complete worst.