To Be Smart Essay Sample

I was 7, standing on the soft, lush, green grass that came with the arrival of spring, I lived here in this old house located in the Sheng-gang district,  I have lived here all my life and stepped into this garden multiple times. This is like a safe haven for my little self,

A plot of land on the south side of Taichung surrounded by rice fields. I hear the distant bouncing of a basketball, on the gray stone-slate paved driveway where my two cousins were playing basketball. We lived together yet are somehow very different, they were more athletic, faster, taller, stronger than I am. While they spent time running around the garden, wrestling in the dirt, I was often on the side reading a book or upstairs doing my homework. 

This difference between us became more obvious as we all grew older, I went to elementary schools that taught English and often scored high among my classmates,I was never interested in sports, I had a few friends, and spent hours in cram school, my cousins on the other hand were popular and took part in a variety of sports.

Then, at family gatherings, I would often be the “smart” one because I was one of the very few amongst my family, that could speak English or scored high in school. I slowly got this idea that I was better than my cousins; that I was above them,because I was “smart”.

I then started comparing myself to my classmates, seeing myself as superior, simply because I had better scores on tests; better than my friends, better than my classmates, and that was what made me “smarter”. For the few that score above me, they were just merely smarter. I was ignorant. But, then middle school came around and this fake reality of mine started to crumble, I met so many people that were also smart, but not in ways I understood… I saw all sorts of smart things, in the electives, school teams, clubs. In many different ways, my classmates shined.People who were smart in arts, music, robotics, sports, mathematics, literature, and amongst these smart people, I was, nothing. For what I had thought was smart, has shattered in front of me. I was so wrong… And that feeling of superiority came crashing down, as I yet again compared myself to my classmates. I had no artistic talent and my drawings are just simple lines and circles,I knew nothing of music, I had thought that perhaps I was tone-deaf, I couldn’t understand how mechanics in robots works, I wasn’t able to focus and spend my time typing code, I am not athletic, I would easily run out of breath and then collapse onto the floor, and it didn’t matter that I could understand everything the teacher said in math class, someone was already doing math a grade level above me, it didn’t matter that I could understand everything in a complex book, Someone was already reading a book 500 Lexile above mine.

For the elementary years of my life, I always had this idea that what matters most, is to score high on tests. Yet now, I envied these individuals. Those who couldn’t exile at every subject but had their own skillset and that made them,

Smart. Some might dismiss such performances as talent

Yet to achieve these so-called talents they had put in hours and hours of hard work and practice. I had even seen some who was terrible at something spend months to practices to improve, So are they not smart? When they spend time exploring this skill, learning it. 

Were they not smart about doing this

To find their way to overcome obstacles

Then to better themselves

Is that not 

Smart? 

I had grown up around adults who thought having an A on every subject, was what defined a child as smart. Those who would draw beautifully, exile in sports, build complex robots aren’t, smart. They were mere, talented.

So had I been the one to train in basketball with my cousins 

instead of reading a book when I was 7 I wouldn’t have been considered smart to these people, I would’ve just been talented in sports. Had I spent all my time reading books instead of trying to ace my next exam, I wouldn’t have been considered smart, I would’ve just been talented in reading. Had I spent all my time practicing the piano, instead of going to cram schools, I wouldn’t have been smart, I would’ve been talented in music.

I have seen parents dismissing their children’s extraordinary skills and hard work in an area just to focus on their grades. Because that was what defined them as smart,just because someone could memorize more dates in history class 

Does it make that person, in comparison to those who can’t

More stupid? 

There is no one definition of whether an individual is smart

So don’t deny how smart a person is

Just because the way that they are smart doesn’t fit in your definition of 

“Smart”