4 Reasons Why the Label ‘Smartest Kid in Class’ Is Destructive

Traits and challenges to overcome as one of the smartest kids in class for 17+ years.

I’ve been labeled as one of the smartest kids in class since I was in kindergarten in almost all the subjects I‘ve taken. I know I’m not even close to the top 1% in my country, but to be completely honest with you, the constant glorification had discreetly inflated my ego, and I’m not proud.

It was almost like an addiction. High marks were everything. I would feel disappointed in myself if I didn’t get the score I wanted, and I unconsciously fed off from my own achievements as well as the justifications of others. If my friend got a slightly higher score than me, I would turn competitive. But it was a one-sided competition as I only declared it in my head. It was absurd.

Fortunately, I was self-conscious about the changes, so it did not get too far. However, my learning, how I deal with people as well as how I work in a team suffered quite a great deal because of it. Let’s dive into it.

1. It builds arrogance

The constant compliments and glorification I got about my scores along with my works from my teachers, parents of my peers, and my classmates swelled my pride, although not immensely.

At first, I thought I was only becoming more confident about myself. I was proven wrong when I went to study abroad alone. Receiving such compliments from people that are near strangers and of a different culture in a university had a different effect.

It was more powerful when the nice words came from them because they didn’t know me as a person, yet they see something in me, something that compelled them to compliment me.

One day, I was discussing an assignment with my former classmate, and I caught myself thinking, why can’t they do or understand something that easy. I took myself off guard. I couldn't believe my thoughts, and I hid it. I didn’t want to accept that I was capable of creating said thoughts.

I was perplexed because although such thoughts were involuntary, I found myself agreeing with it. Fortunately, I never acted on my slight arrogance because I know that we all have our differences, and I was lucky to have most of the qualities students need to excel in academic education.

Eventually, I accepted that I have that kind of bad side too.

Now, every time it would get too much, I would sit and scold myself — Are you the best in the world? An expert? If your answer is no, you have no right to think that way about others. They might not be great at writing a report, but it’s only a report, does it really matter?

2. I became unknowingly selfish

With the arrogance came the selfishness. As I knew that I would do the given assignments best, I became a jerk. In many group assignments, I asked my team members to do certain parts of it and only ended up using 0–30% of their work.

Which seemed fine, and my friends were not complaining, especially after seeing the results. But after talking to them on the last semester (which was kind of too late), I realized that I was being selfish.

Not telling them of what is wrong, not asking them to redo or add on something, and doing everything by myself means that I am keeping my knowledge to myself. I was excelling and flourishing, but my friends’ skills and/or knowledge stayed the way it was because I took their chance to grow.

It wasn’t great.

However, knowing that now helped me a lot in working in a team. I stopped doing everything by myself unless necessary, and everybody is learning something new, so that’s good.

3. What is effort?

Throughout school, I’ve earned the ‘smart kid’ reputation, so somehow, it didn’t matter whether I put in a lot of effort at something or not. When I got good grades, people would say that it’s because I’m smart. When I got bad ones, people would say something along the lines of “It’s just one bad score, you’re still smart.”

No one cared about effort. However, those words got into my head, and it became an excuse. In university, I was assuring myself that it is alright for me to procrastinate from studying for an exam or from doing an assignment because I’m smart. I was sure that I could absorb the knowledge and do the assignments fast.

I was overestimating my capabilities.

I acted even more carelessly because I knew that I had luck. I call it academic luck because even when I’m convinced that I’ll fail an exam or get a low mark, it never happened. I always got an excellent score, particularly for those exams. I have no idea why.

Anyway, after a while, I decided to stop using said reputation as an excuse. There was no big realization like the previous ones, I just didn’t want to be stressed all the time, and I was scared that I’ll run out of luck because of it one day.

Aside from that, putting more effort brings more joy for me after the results come out anyway!

4. Earlier burnouts to meet expectations

I have been trying to achieve high scores and put in so much effort into my studies non-stop since I was in primary school.

I started feeling tired of going to school when I was sixteen. I was tired of having to keep up with my high achievement streaks. But I had to, as I was a perfectionist and because I was the smart kid. I would feel guilty if I couldn’t meet my parents’ and teachers’ expectations.

I broke down when I was seventeen because of unsaid expectations that I would become someone successful because I was a smart kid, and the first step was by picking the right university and the right major.

I burned out when I was in the half of the first year in university. Three weeks of holiday could not prevent the weight from pulling me down. I found studying as burdensome.

Even now, the traces of the burnout is still there. I burnt all my coals at the start, and now I’m out of it. Fortunately, I rekindled with writing, so it is much more bearable.

I don’t get why people glorify the title of being the smartest kid in class. I admit, for a short period of time, it was a great confidence booster, and it seemed like a great title to have. But the expectations behind the label are too heavy on some days, and the words imply unwanted superiority, especially because it only covers the academic performance of someone.

Hopefully, the world will stop putting so much importance on a mere label. Stop putting people in roles they never asked.

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