Average
In my 12th grade year of high school, I had to take an IQ test, because I have a “disability” which is just A.D.D. When I was called back to review the results the counselor told me that I have an average IQ. Average- a word I always hear enough of. An average day, an average life, an average boy, etc. Today where putting a label on someone isn’t viewed in high regard, why shouldn’t that apply to someone’s intelligence. Instead, we are all ranked by numbers, and whoever got the highest one is more likely to succeed than the one below them. That’s what colleges think at least. The whole measuring of intelligence baffles me, how could you measure it? Is it by how much useless information someone knows? Or is intelligence a God-given thing?
Ever since entering high school, my intelligence in knowing useless topics have been tested. “Oh, you didn’t take AP Chinese History? How come?” I never understood the point of some of those advanced placement classes. Sure, it looks good on your transcripts but am I really going to use what I learn in AP Music History in my future career? Probably not.
I wasn’t in anything advanced besides taking honors classes. I even remember once I told an acquaintance that I’m taking 10th-grade level math and science in 10th grade, (like geometry and biology) and he told me, “at my school that’s the slow route.” So now not only am I average I’m “slow”. I had peers judging me because I did not take any “challenging classes”. I was nothing more than an average student. So, I was looked down on. But not everyone did. My mom always tried to find the good in it “Being average is good Dante.” or she would tell me “An average life is better than an above-average life.” As much as I appreciated how she tried to make me feel better, it never worked.
If there is anything my average mind has learned is not to take classes I deem unnecessary. I’ll use this example a lot but what is the point of taking a class like German History or Advance Chemistry when I want to peruse English, I don’t want to waste my time learning a topic that I probably won’t use for the rest of my life. Now look, if I wanted to practice medicine or become a history teacher I should take classes that help in those fields. In that sense yes, I would need to talk classes that I just mentioned. Right now, I’m not.
Last semester I took a Philosophy class and the only thing I learned from that is not to take any class that has nothing to do with my major. Ironically that became my philosophy in life. No matter how much I studied I just could not understand most of what was taught. And I’m not ashamed of saying that, we all have our strengths and weaknesses. Just because I didn’t do too great on a certain topic doesn’t mean I’m of a lesser mind than someone who did understand it. Yet you are treated as if you are less, and most students are just too proud to mention their flaws because of that factor.
Like most we all went to high school and I remember in classes (and now sometimes college) the teacher would say, “I want you to think critically about this assignment.” It can be a little annoying when they say that because I don’t always think critically, I think average. I’m average here, I’m average there. I’m even a painfully average height of 5’7, well average in most Asian countries.
I’ve never been the type of person to parade myself around in front of people. Or talk about how smart I am. I assumed people who have a need to talk about themselves have some insecurities that they don’t want to talk about. When you get an A on an assignment, nobody cares except your parents. And I don’t mean to talk down about myself, that would contradict the message of what I’m saying. I just never found it necessary to act like a know-it-all. I could, easily pull out a dictionary and find a word to make me look “smart”. Yet I write what I know. Because what’s the point of writing a story with an “advance” kind of vocabulary that could only be understood by a person of “higher intelligence”, while if it was written in something more common it would cross a larger demographic. I don’t want to treat any reader like an idiot. I’d rather spread my work or knowledge in an easier way so that it gets across everyone’s board.
Once, I read a story I didn’t grasp the concept of it, some of it was confusing and the writer was a bit extra in the vocabulary section. That discouraged me, it made me feel like I wasn’t clever enough to have a full grasp of this writer’s story. It isn’t a great feeling when you question your own intelligence. Unfortunately, I became that way, and still to this day question it. Maybe it’s that post-teenage angst.
I never thought that I was smart because how can you measure intelligence? Is it more of “I know more useless information than you so that makes me the smart one?” Or is it by the number? Obviously, I say I don’t recognize a number as a measurement of someone’s intelligence, yet that’s how most view it. I was never an above and beyond student, I just did what I had to do and got out. I didn’t try to maintain a 4.0 GPA throughout high school because I felt like that didn’t matter. I didn’t strive for an A in any of my science classes because it didn’t interest me. Eventually, I’m going to apply for a job, and when I’m interviewed the manager or boss aren’t going to pull out my high school transcript and say, “I noticed you got a C in your 11th-grade chemistry class, I’m sorry you don’t fit the job description.” Obviously, I’m being unrealistic.
Yet through all my struggles, my pain, I learned to enjoy myself for myself. Sure, I won’t be this amazing doctor with a 150 IQ or whatever people view as above average. I’ll probably never win a Noble Prize for finding the cure for some foreign disease I never heard of. I’ll be average, but that doesn’t mean I’ll have an average life. Maybe average is all I need to be to have a happy life, and happiness is more important than being a genius.
Nahai 2019
