I mean, some people seem smart and some don't.
That's the flawed way of thinking that I used to have, but it's slowly metamorphasizing (how the heck do you spell that? is that even a word?) into a better way of thinking. And by that, I mean that I realized about thirty minutes ago that I've had it wrong this whole time. (I actually said it was a process because I think it took some experience to come to that realization. Plus, that makes me sound more philosophical and deep.)
Why isn't my answer legitimate? Because I've been going mostly by academic standards to classify someone as "smart". And that's totally wrong.
I mean, I got a good score on my ACT, so I like to think of myself as smart. But I know next to nothing about fishing or hunting or hard drives or mathematical theory. There are some things I'm not very good at learning, like math (because I hate it and it should die a horrible painful death and then we'd never be able to use money again and would have to go back to a barter system but would that really be so bad? because I think it might be worth it...). Some things I'm just ignorant of, like the way some plants have water inside them if you cut them open or the way that the temperature of water can change from one spot to another.
And sometimes, being smart isn't about learning at all. It's about the fact that perspective changes with every mind. I could analyze something from every angle I know how to look from, and then someone else can come along and effortlessly point out something that I'd never seen before.
By talking to people in their unique way of seeing things, I can learn about everything from relationships to constellations. I can see a different person behind every familiar smile. I can see a new night sky the millionth time I look up at it.
I'm really not that smart at all.
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