"What the......I've Been Robbed?"

Okay. Let me be the first again to say, "Never have I felt more like the village idiot than now!" I read the assigned readings for my class and almost completed a drop slip. Hense, the posting for this weeks random thought:

ADULTHOOD STRIPS YOU OF YOUR GIFTED AND SMART STATUS

I know this may sound crazy, but I use to be smart. If my mom were alive she would say borderline brilliant. My processing was always on-point. I could glance at a subject and go to work in a matter of minutes. I was the student the teacher always left in charge, asked to assist others in small groups, the student whose paper was the model. But now, after reading this weeks assignments.....I need remediation.  Where the heck did my smarts go? When did they leave me?  Ever feel that way? That made me think long and hard about the age at which I lost them.  And after this deep and meditative thought, requiring me to speak with my last remaning older brothers, and a few friends of my deceased parents, I realized at or around 30 they disappeared.  I now understand this is the time for the last bit of poor and bad desicion making for those that were once considered overachievers. This is the point at which smart people transition from either securing their smartness or tossing it to the wind. I'm sure based on my lack of words for the post title, you know what side of the fence I've found myself on.

Allow me to explain. In elementary school you're all about impressing your teacher.  So you go about doing whatever you are told to do. As long as you do it exactly like the teacher, you're good. And just when you're able to do it like him or her at 100%- boom! It's time for a transition. Low and behold middle school. 

Middle school is a place where you simply do what is required. Your smarts from middle school are still pretty much there, you just surpress them because puberty takes front and center. Usually your peers from elementary school fall by the wayside because the teacher isn't there to give praises and those scented stickers. They have no incentitives. These are also the people that develop future drug habits and become known for nicknamesthat indicate what they're into. At this point in the game, middle school teachers want to simply get to high school for professional growth. So they have a "if you learn it, you learn it" approach along with a stack of preformated and stamped office referrals for those that challenge their authority.  Remember I said middle school triggers hormones. 

High-school is where you are programmed on how to think. This is where the smarts take front and center again, because some teacher is there to convince your parents, like in elementary school, that a test from another state, coupled with you being one of few people that still write your first and last name on your paper, that you are gifted and smart so you should be held to a higher level of accountability. And in order to keep you focused they come up with something called "class rank." You are clueless that this is a competition! So when you graduate at the 2nd half of your class instead of the top because you were taking things like AP-Trig, Dual Credit and AP-English, you become somewhat disheartened to discover your buddy from elementary school that took all regular classes, is in the top 50!  Your parents give you lectures about how smart you were, and how you should have applied yourself more, etc.  And just when you think that lecture ends, boom! Another transition- college

College is a place of not how to think, but what to think about. This is aplce where the ubber smart people really get lost because there's so much to think about! But anyway, I think this is where I lost my will to be smart. It was a process. Time was in cahoots with "don't care." But again, I lost my smarts around 30. They just disappeared I guess. Poof. Here today gone tomorrow. My first poor decision in my 30's was returning to my old zip code. We always return to the familiar even if there was a reason why we left.

But now, I read something and think is this important in the grand scheme of things.  Is this something I need to keep for now or can I toss this? I read now for enjoyment and to learn for my class.  But as far as trying to convince people that I'm smart again- that is so elementary school.  My smarts are gone and have been replaced with "wits."

What you say is wits? Wits are things you learn just by living your life.  Wits teach you things like this:

1. Even though you look like you're between 28 and 31, you're 43 and that young guy that's flirting with you does not have the 401K nor the retirement package that you have. And if you both look the same age, in 3yrs he'll look 50.
2. If a Mercedes Benz cost $90,000+ and a KIA Soul $16,000 who are you really trying to impress? What's your motive? Money in bank and in this economy, money in pocket, is better. You spend money, cars get spent.
3. Any piece of technology that has a numerical assignment and model number is a gimic and status symbol. The purpose of a cellphone is to call, text and give the time. Anything else is expendible.
4. All men come back if you're a woman and all women come back if you're a man. Mind you they may not look the same as when they left you, but rest assured if you were nice and kind and respectful they will come back.
5. We become parents to the kids we laughed at as kids. *Harsh reality.

I could go on and on, but you get my drift. I've been stripped of my gifted and smart status. Maybe I'm nolonger the smartest or the most likely to know information no one else does. Maybe I'm nolonger the information czar. Yea, it hurts a little. But I've got my wits about me. And that's something that no textbook could ever teach me.