I recently finished another semester of university, which means I have officially completed half of my degree. Yay, or something. Anyway, since I have another few weeks with little in the way of commitments, I feel it’s time for some self improvement.
You see, I want to become “smart” again. When I was younger, I was, pretty much, smarter than everyone else my age, and achieved more academically, without having to do any work. And because of it, I frequently got special privileges, and got to participate in special programs. These days? It seems that everyone has “caught up”, and I’m no longer better than everyone else. It annoys me that it’s possible for other people to beat me in assignments, exams, etc., even when I put in effort, as there’s nothing I can do about it. I hate being second rate. I probably sound like a spoiled brat here, and I’m not going to deny that I am one..!
But. I would like to rise up and regain my status of “super smart”. I don’t know whether this is achievable (I suspect it’s not), or how it is achievable, but as part of my “master plan”, I would like to increase my general knowledge. Certainly, I can hold my own in a game of Trivial Pursuit, but screw that; for me, it’s all about winning. I want to own. For sure, I have areas that I can definitely improve in. History, for instance. Most of my current knowledge about history comes from the Horrible Histories series of books for children, which I used to read. This is fine, but I don’t know whether those are wholly historically accurate, and also I want to read something aimed more at an adult audience. Oh, and something that looks at the history of science and technology should be interesting, rather than the usual people-and-events focus.
Also, I’m not averse to using documentaries to improve my knowledge. In fact, I quite like them (related posts: Dinosaurs, Koyaanisqatsi).
So I plan to go forth and learn. Or, be overwhelmed and give up immediately.
I identify with this post so much — from the fact that you were smarter than everyone else your age when you were younger, right up to wanting to own. And my high school only further perpetuated this need being selective. It’s certainly a sobering moment when you (or me, really, here) reach university and realize that owning is actually a lot harder than you previously thought.
I wish I could download Wikipedia into my brain. Yea.
I totally get this. I was the smartest kid by far when I was in school in Australia, and then I transferred to a US high school and suddenly I was run of the mill. (I choose to think of this as a reflection between Australian and US schools rather than my intelligence, as it’s illogical to assume I lost my smarts in the span of six months :P)
I am still holding out for that machine in The Matrix where you can download information into your brain!
This sounds so much like me. Everyone used to tell me how smart I was, and now that I’m in high school I’m just average. It’s probably because I stopped putting in an effort – if I actually tried, I would be near the top again. I just can’t be bothered.
Sounds like a massive undertaking but good luck! If you believe it can happen then I’m sure you’ll make it happen.
Story of my life. We should plan a “let’s get smarter and take over the world” project together. Yes?
I had this complex in the past, lol. College has a way of hammering it in that there will always be someone smarter.
Don’t give up on this! It’s always the best goal to keep learning and improve yourself, motivated by whatever reason. Just realize that while it might be good to be knowledgeable about a wide variety of subjects, there’s also practical knowledge/common sense stuff that’s equally as important.
This is definitely something I can identify with, too! I was such a smartypants when I was younger, but I seem to have lost my drive to learn everything about everything. I literally used to sit and read field guides of different species of animals from cover to cover, and pore over National Geographic, and read 6 books a month out of the library. I aced absolutely everything, but now I’m just average.
It’s tough, because I know I ought to be happy – especially because I’m in art school and well, you can’t just “study” to get better, some of that is talent-based – but I miss my old abilities. It’s something I’m steadily working to get back to, just picking up random books and reading them for the sake of learning. Good luck to you, too!
You should also specialize in something. Pick something you love (i.e. kites) and become a total expert at it. That way you can at least comfort yourself with knowing more than anyone about that thing. (Mmm, kites.) For awhile I was like, “I know more than anyone about the Internets!” But now that is totally not the case and it makes me sad. But at least now I know more than anyone else about kites.
[...] Made a plan to self-improve. [...]