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Why Being Called a Smart Kid in Elementary School Has Made High School Harder

Since elementary school, I’ve always been referred to as smart. My grades were great throughout both primary and middle school, and I certainly enjoyed the praise that came along with my achievements. I always aimed to do well, because I craved the appraisal that came from my parents and teachers.

Now, fast forward to high school. Once again, I aimed to do well, to achieve the high grades I’d always gotten. But high school seemed to take that goal and throw it in the trash, because within the first few weeks of my freshman year, I learned something: highschool is hard, and I can’t handle nearly as much as I thought I could. I was devastated, I had always been so smart, how could this ever happen? How could I, a smart kid, earn anything besides an A or a B?

Being referred to as smart in middle school and elementary school has greatly affected myself and several others. People I have met both in real life and through social media have expressed that they have gone through a situation similar to mine. In these early times of our lives, we are placed under a standard of greatness that is extremely simple to achieve at the time– but get’s much more difficult as we progress. We learn what success tastes like at a young age, yet never experience failure, and that’s a problem.

Without experiencing the bitter feeling of failure beforehand, I cried for hours after I received a D on a biology test. I felt as if I had lost my intelligence, or if perhaps I had been misjudged my entire life, that I was stupid. It took a severe toll on my mental health, and the motivation I once possessed began to wither away. Luckily, I have managed to regain my confidence and am able to motivate myself once again. But even so, I find that as a junior in highschool, I have such high standards for myself, and when I am unable to meet them, it impacts me quite a lot. It feels, at times, as if the title of “smart kid” hangs over my head. They are just two simple words, that when put together, remind me that I cannot fail, that I will be a disappointment if I do.

Being referred to as a “smart kid” in my early years was most likely intended to motivate me to continue my good habits, which it did at the time. But because the idea of failure never crossed my mind, it hurt me in the end. Everyday I struggle with my own goals, because they scare me just as much as they motivate me.

For those of you who may feel similar to the way I do, I have a few things to say:

1) Intelligence does not in any way determine your worth.
2) You will fail. It is inevitable, what matters most is how you come back from that failure.
3) Don’t base your confidence off of others’ praise, the best motivation comes from yourself.

It is unlikely that children will stop receiving the same praise I did, therefore there will be people in the future feeling similar to how I do. In the end, the most important thing to understand is that failure is part of life, and the concept of being a ‘failure’ is ridiculous. We are who we see ourselves as, so, start seeing yourself as a winner.

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