3. TIL studies show that teens overestimate how much the cooler kids and jocks are ...

TIL studies show that teens overestimate how much the cooler kids and jocks are drinking and having sex, and also how much the nerds are studying

They were born better than me, and I knew it. They were better than the rest of us, and I wasn't the only one that envied them.

I don't know how old you are, but maybe you or someone who's reading will be young enough (in high school) for this comment to be helpful. I was one of those "4.0 came easy" kids in high school. A few things you should know:

Those people worked harder than they led you to believe. Yes, maybe 1 in a million was able to skip every class and show up for the exam to ace it, but that's usually not the case (no matter how smart you think someone is). I remember in high school, among certain circles it was cool to say that you "barely studied" for a test. Maybe they did study less than you, but chances are they at least spent a few hours of intense studying the night before a test. People retain information in different ways. Some people need to spend an hour a day for a week to learn stuff. Some people only need to spend 5 hours of intense studying the night before a test. It's all the same (though the former is probably better for long term retention). Some people need to work a bit harder to learn things. You're not dumb or less intelligent if you need to work to learn stuff, everyone does.

My point is that they were not born better than you. In fact, if you are the kind of person who is willing to work hard for what you want, I would argue that you were born better than them. Hard work is by far the most important trait in life. Yes, I realize how bullshit and cliche this sounds, but it is true. Looking back at high school, it disgusts me how kids split people into either the "smart" or "not smart" kids categories. I think that if a kid truly believes s/he is not a smart kid, s/he will never realize their actual potential. I'm not trying to say that everyone is a special snowflake who is destined for greatness, but rather that I think people tend to write themselves off too soon. In my admittedly short professional experience (I'm not that old), I've found that my best co-workers are the ones that are willing to work hard to accomplish something, and not the ones that are just "intuitively smart".

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