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Maybe We’re Just a Sea of Special Snowflakes
You get a gold star, and you get a gold star, and YOU get a gold star!
I came across my high school transcripts a few days ago as I sorted through paperwork. The rows of A’s made me marvel a little as I thought, “I don’t know how the hell I ever did that.”
(Keep in mind that I was also not the best at attendance. I nearly didn’t graduate because of how much school I missed — not one of my proud moments. I still think back and cringe, considering how easily I could have ruined that part of my life if I hadn’t had understanding teachers who knew how up-and-down my mother’s health was at the best of times.)
My grades actually gave me a little haughty air when I was in high school. While other students struggled, I sat back and tried to blend in the background — even though there was a smugness I never quite shook, despite my quiet demeanor.
I obviously thought I was a special snowflake.
Ten years, a few jobs, and a college degree later — I realize that I was just fooling myself all along. There was nothing special about what I did. To that point, there were kids who did even more, and my envy would have been monstrous if I had peers like that around me.
