Member-only story
The Education System Gassed Me Up
Now I’m paying the consequences
“Gifted learner.” “Taking lots of Advanced Placement courses.” “Near-perfect SAT score.”
These were some of the things that came to define who I was before college. I’d always been told I was highly intelligent and “gifted.”
I think what that ended up doing, though, was breeding entitlement.
“I went to Duke, so I deserve a good, high-paying job.”
“I can write papers, so I’m definitely more hireable due to excellent writing/communication skills.”
Now that I’m out of college, I’m in a rat race with everyone else. Having a good education is a good thing, sure, but you must humble yourself and avoid having a big ego.
I know I have the tendency to shit on myself all the time, but I do think I had a personal point of pride when it came to school. Because that’s all I was good at throughout K-12.
Grad school is not as challenging as I thought it might be. And I still turn in all my assignments and such in a timely manner. I have organizational skills from years of doing schoolwork. And I guess maybe those are soft skills I earned from being in college for six years. All the same, though, I still have much to learn from the people around me.
