Wednesday, December 1, 2010

On Whiz Kids and the Cream of the Northern Illinois Crop

Song Prompt Wednesday!

My how time flies.

Here is our Mr. Folds quote of the day:
"You get smaller while the world gets big
The more you know you know you don't know shit
The whiz man'll never fit you like the whiz kid did."- Ben Folds, Bastard.

I went to school with a lot of over achievers. We were told how smart we were a lot. We got a nice label. We were all "Gifted".

I was always in the middle of the intellectual pack. A solid gifted B. :P I had to work a decent amount for the some of the B's. But there were always those that shined. The gifted of the gifted. Many were pretty normal and down to earth, but there was a certain percentage that lived for their label. Whiz kids. They knew everything at 15. Never really used to working for much.

I wonder what happened to a few of them. If they grew up and realized that being of the cream of the northern Illinois crop really wasn't as big of a deal in the long run as it seemed at the time. I wonder if they were ever just the middle of the pack at their Ivy League schools. I wonder what that would have felt like for them.

Most probably have matured and outgrown their labels, but I imagine there are a few "gifted" whiz men and women running around annoying people.

Bastard:

3 comments:

  1. Haha, I think I might be married to one if the annoying ones. ;)

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  2. Nah, Matt is not the type I am talking about here. In fact, I don't find him annoying at all. :P

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  3. I think you might be describing me to an extent- at least the way I was in high school. I didn't live for my label but I certainly enjoyed it. I didn't realize how important it was to me until I got to college (Illinois Wesleyan) and was *just* average. It was hard on me the first year or two. Then I adjusted and eventually moved on to other things.

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