When I tell someone my GPA or the classes that I take, I tend to hear the same old stereotypical things about “nerds”.
The biggest misconception that people have is that they assume that since I am in difficult classes and I manage good grades, I do not have a social life. However, they could not be anymore wrong.
Yes, I do more than study and prepare for an upcoming test. Just because I may be academically inclined does not mean I do not do anything else. I am able to fit time to hang out with my friends and still be able to study for a test I have. I have a great way of balancing everything out in my life, and pride myself on that a lot.
I can still go to parties, go over my friends’ houses, go catch a movie, and still manage good grades. There are times where I may have to sacrifice a weekend to stay in to study a little extra for a test that I think I might have trouble with, but a majority of the time, mainly on the weekends, you can catch me out with my friends.
Sophomore Jessica Benitez said, “Yeah, I always find myself in the same position. People think I must not doing anything but study and they are just completely wrong.”
People also tend to think that all of my friends are only “nerds” and those are the only people I associate with, but that is not the case either.
I have also seem to notice that people often ask me if my parents are the ones who make me take hard classes and push me to achieve such high grades. My parents obviously do push me and always want what is best for me, but the person that is hardest on me is myself. I am the one who choses challenging classes; I am the one who pushes myself to study a little harder or work more to raise my grade. My parents are usually the ones telling me to take a break and to not stress myself out.
Being smart does not make you a loser whatsoever. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being smart, and it is a shame when people feel the need to hide their intelligence because they think they might be thought of as a typical “nerd”.
“I used to hate doing well in school when I was younger because I thought people would just think of me as the “smart kid”. But as I got older, I learned to just embody who I am,” said an anonymous student.
I could not be any more happy than the way I am and how well I perform in school. It is never something I am ashamed of because there is no reason for me to be. I am proud of my grades; however, they do not define me either. My performance in academics does not determine my social life or really anything else about me.
The best advice to someone who is in the same position as me and has been told those same stereotypical things about “nerds” is to just embrace who you are because to me, being smart and well-educated is one of the best things to be in this world.
What is a common stereotype you often hear people say to you?