1. Some of your earliest memories are of wanting to go to school, or being jealous of any older siblings who were already going.
They'd be so smug when they got home about all the things they learned.
2. Once at school, you spent many years getting more and more addicted to good grades.
Grades were the purest form of validation.
3. That addiction to grades may mean that nowadays you're kind of bad at assessing yourself.
"Sure, you liked my conversation on this date...but would you give it an A or an A minus?"
4. Your absolute favourite kind of shopping as a child was back to school shopping.
This was the beginning of your present-day stationery addiction.
5. Your organisation skills as a student were next-level.
Your lists were the finest in the school.
6. And you're pretty sure you invented colour-coding.
Not to mention colouring inside the lines.
7. When other kids were figuring out how to dress cool, you were just sitting around smelling books.
It's a thing you still do. They smell great, OK?
8. You have plenty of leftover resentment about the “group work” you did that was actually just you carrying along a bunch of freeloaders.
When you get the whole class an A on the test 🙌🏽 (via @yo_rochelle)
"Oh, good, we ALL get an A. Everyone one of us. Who stayed up all night and worked really hard. Yup. Good."
9. You probably ENJOYED school, a fact that you may have had to hide from your friends.
You may have even enjoyed homework. It was your darkest secret.
10. Unless your friends were as nerdy as you. Which they probably were.
Fellow nerds and good kids were such a blessing.
11. While other people were getting drunk for the first time, you were probably playing board games with your nerdy pals.
12. Sometimes, when you hear about people’s wild times as teenagers, you just have to nod along like “yeah... totally... same!” when really you spent your free time in innocent activities.
Like reading and going for long, invigorating walks.
13. Since you were good and reliable, the teacher gave you special responsibilities.
Nothing made you prouder.
14. You probably had overly keen parents with very high expectations for you.
"Mom I got 98% for math" "If you can get as much as 98% why is it so hard for you to get the other 2%??" #GrowingUpAsian
15. You may not have been a huge fan of P.E., but you did it anyway because you didn't want to let down your teacher.
Because you respected and appreciated your teachers, as all good children do.
16. You were definitely morally opposed to cheating on tests and copying homework.
Which would always be a problem because everyone wanted to copy from YOU.
17. You may even have been part of a ~gifted and talented~ programme.
Another proud moment.
18. You'd get frustrated when there was a substitute teacher who just whacked on a video instead of teaching a lesson.
How dare they? You'll get so behind!
19. Sometimes you were the only one who did the homework, so you kind of had to pretend you didn’t. Out of embarrassment.
“Yeah totally, school sucks guys.”
20. There was nothing – NOTHING – worse in school than getting in trouble.
You can probably count on one hand the number of times you got in trouble at school – and remember each instance in vivid detail. And why it was totally unjust. You still think about it today.
21. You always felt a LOT of pressure in school – it felt like every choice would you made would have a huge impact on your life.
im VERY laid back. i only care about 2 things: every person on earth & their opinion of me the crushing psychological weight of being alive
“I may only be eight, but this book report will determine the course of my future forever.”
22. So applying to university was an EXTRA stressful time. All the good things you ever did were meant to equal UNIVERSITY.
23. And applying for a job felt even MORE like rolling out every good thing you've ever done to prove you were, and still are, a good kid.
You've been working for this your WHOLE LIFE and it's hard not to come off overly keen.
24. When you finally got out into the real world, you missed leaning and your days as a good kid.
You were so good at school. Why can't all of life be like that?
25. But the best thing about being an adult is that you don't have to pretend to be cool anymore.
That's right. You love to read and follow rules. Because you're a classy adult now.
