Aging

If I Had Bought My Brain From Amazon, I’d Leave a Bad Review

Unfortunately, I cannot return this one

Photo by Simon Bak on Unsplash

My brain was supposed to be quite the powerhouse. I tested off the charts on every intelligence test I ever took, and finished early on tests they said nobody can ever finish. An Amazon ad for my brain would have a lot to say about that.

Unfortunately, a high IQ means that you are good at taking IQ tests. It doesn’t mean you will be good at anything else. I didn’t know that when I set out to live my life, but the realities of living soon explained it to me.

I think the first dose came in the form of a High School math class. It was called “Calculus and Analytic Geometry”. I passed the class, but it was harder than I had expected. Up to that point, I had never bothered to study for any class, whatever the subject, instead relying on memory and logic to see me through. I didn’t study for this one either, but it was obvious to me that I was on my way to more challenging classes.

So I quit school at the end of my junior year.

Yes, really. I was bored, I had a good deal of contempt for most of my teachers, and I was miserable. I hated school. I hated it so much that for many decades my most unpleasant dreams found me back in a classroom, stifled…