- #1
Eclair_de_XII
- 1,083
- 91
I have this friend who praises my intelligence sometimes. She always talks about how I'm "really smart" because I get good grades in college. Whenever she praises me, I cannot help but groan silently, because the main reason that I get good grades is because I don't take that many classes per semester. I take an average of three classes per semester, less than half of what most people take in a semester. I do this in order to find time to work at my job, in addition to stave off student debt which I have managed to avoid in all my years of going to college by taking my time in school and going to work at the same time.
All the same, I can think of other people who both work more hours than me and take more classes than I do. So I know without a doubt that I do not work as hard as other people. So even though I get good grades in all these classes, it doesn't really mean much, considering I needn't spread my focus to as many classes as my peers. I'm really not that smart compared to others. So when people disagree with me, it just irks me a little bit because I know I don't deserve this praise.
I mean, I haven't taken many hard classes in my whole academic career. I just take whatever is available in a semester, in an effort to maximize the number of hours I can do at work. I mean, other than the fact that for the past two years, I had been putting a somewhat large emphasis on taking lots of probability and/or statistics courses, as opposed to the various analysis courses, number theory, topology, and abstract algebra courses that my friend has told me she has taken.
Anyway, she still has the gall to call me smart even though I haven't taken her class-load. We have been in the same class just three times in all my years of going to college. Once, during proof-writing class, another time during vector analysis, and another time for this mandatory senior seminar for math students. I mean, I guess I got good grades in the first two classes I had with her, but there was always somebody better than me in both of those classes, so my good grades don't really mean much. And for that vector analysis course, my professor told me himself that I got an eighty-percent in the final exam after I had asked him the following semester if I had bombed it. So my performance isn't exactly exemplary.
These grades really don't mean anything important, especially since I never had any plans to attend graduate school. I'm tired of school. I would not be able to get a professor to write up a letter of recommendation for me because I never had any nerve to talk to many of my classmates in my academic career, let alone any professors. I also lack the math courses necessary for some math graduate programs. I only found out about the last thing because she told me. It genuinely annoys me every time somebody asks me if I'm going to graduate school. It for some reason feels like I'm being praised unnecessarily, which is why I hate it.
In any case, am I justified in being annoyed every time someone praises my intelligence?
All the same, I can think of other people who both work more hours than me and take more classes than I do. So I know without a doubt that I do not work as hard as other people. So even though I get good grades in all these classes, it doesn't really mean much, considering I needn't spread my focus to as many classes as my peers. I'm really not that smart compared to others. So when people disagree with me, it just irks me a little bit because I know I don't deserve this praise.
I mean, I haven't taken many hard classes in my whole academic career. I just take whatever is available in a semester, in an effort to maximize the number of hours I can do at work. I mean, other than the fact that for the past two years, I had been putting a somewhat large emphasis on taking lots of probability and/or statistics courses, as opposed to the various analysis courses, number theory, topology, and abstract algebra courses that my friend has told me she has taken.
Anyway, she still has the gall to call me smart even though I haven't taken her class-load. We have been in the same class just three times in all my years of going to college. Once, during proof-writing class, another time during vector analysis, and another time for this mandatory senior seminar for math students. I mean, I guess I got good grades in the first two classes I had with her, but there was always somebody better than me in both of those classes, so my good grades don't really mean much. And for that vector analysis course, my professor told me himself that I got an eighty-percent in the final exam after I had asked him the following semester if I had bombed it. So my performance isn't exactly exemplary.
These grades really don't mean anything important, especially since I never had any plans to attend graduate school. I'm tired of school. I would not be able to get a professor to write up a letter of recommendation for me because I never had any nerve to talk to many of my classmates in my academic career, let alone any professors. I also lack the math courses necessary for some math graduate programs. I only found out about the last thing because she told me. It genuinely annoys me every time somebody asks me if I'm going to graduate school. It for some reason feels like I'm being praised unnecessarily, which is why I hate it.
In any case, am I justified in being annoyed every time someone praises my intelligence?
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