The more things change...

...the more they stay the same.

Just got home a little while ago from a night hanging out with old grade school classmates. A great time was had by all (at least, I hope so!). It's always nice to see people that you've been separated from by time and distance. I mean, back in the 80s, there were the people that were the most important to me other than my family.

For those of you who don't know, I attended a very small Catholic K-8 grade school in Toledo. As a result, I was in the same class with a group of roughly 20-25 kids for eight years. Add to that participating in sports sponsored by the school and you're talking about 8 or 9 hours a day of spending time with this same group of people.

And then it ends. Rather abruptly for some of us. I went on to high school and saw very little of my old grade school friends. Met some new people. Found new activities to do outside of school. It's life, right?

And then Facebook came into being and started allowing people who didn't have emails with college domains to create pages. All of a sudden, I'm in contact with men and women who I haven't seen or heard from in 20 years. Thank God for technology, eh?

But what I found rather striking tonight is that some things really never change. Those of you who have known me since childhood likely know that I was an exceptional student in grade school. So much so that my parents had me tested and I skipped first grade. And for the rest of my grade school experience, in addition to whatever else I became known for, I was ALWAYS known as "the smart kid." In a school of 200 kids, EVERYONE knows the little twerp who skipped first grade, you know?

Flash forward 20+ years later. I'm still "the smart one." And for reasons I don't quite fully understand myself...it bothers me. Because I don't always feel that smart. Having gone off to the University of Michigan out of high school, I found a whole community of people who seemed more intelligent that I. I don't deny having an innate intelligence. But I've met people in my life who make me feel like an intellectual dwarf.

There's a part of me that wishes that I could be described using a positive OTHER than my intelligence. This is something I've struggled with for years. And here's the weird thing...why? What is wrong with people appreciating the talents I was born with? Why does it bother me, even just a little?