HANNAH’S STORY #1

Being Smart Is Not All It’s Cracked Up to Be

And here is why

I know that I was born with a good brain. I like puzzles, I like to write, and I love math. I didn’t realize that problem-solving was so much easier for me than others until I observed my classmates at school. They couldn’t see the things that I could, and it wasn’t any fault of theirs. They could do other things well. Some were athletic. I am not. Others could sing. I can direct. I had friends who were full of sunshine and happiness. That’s not me. I wish it were.

So now that I am in Terre Haute trying to figure out why I’ve been angry, I realize that my “smarts” has not always been a blessing. Sometimes my mom will say to me, “Can you please figure out…?” and then it’s a fill-in-the-blank situation. It can be requests like,

“What’s the quickest way to get to the Target in Greencastle?”

My response?

“Can’t we just Google it?”

I might also get,

“Ben has a rash on his hand. Can you take a look and see if you know what it is? Maybe we don’t need to go to the doctor. I can just pick up some Cortisone cream and save some money.”

My response?

“Mom, I’m not a doctor. I don’t want to be treating Ben.”

I am likely to then hear,

“Oh, I know, honey, but you are so smart.”

I think it matters less that I am smart than that I do something good with it. Popposites was a start at my trying to take my words and message and help my friends see that everything has two sides and that those sides make life more interesting — even more meaningful.

Take this example. My dad gave me fifty dollars and had his girlfriend, Lucy, drop me off at the grocery store. Ben came with because he had nothing to do, and we thought it would be good for him to get out. My dad’s orders were, “See if you can get us enough food — mostly healthy — to last the week.” I hadn’t gone grocery shopping much and never in Terre Haute. I didn’t know how far fifty dollars would go, but because there are fields of corn in Terre Haute, I figured the corn must be cheap, so I made sure to get that.

Here was my Popposite moment. I had to juggle healthy foods with salty and sugary snacks that would make Ben and me happy. I discovered that fifty dollars is not a lot when you add chicken, meat, and vegetables to your cart. The whole time, I was doing a running tab in my mind to see about how much I had left.

I decided I needed to give Ben a job so that it could be fun for him and he could feel helpful. Maybe even I’d get him to exercise his brain. So I asked him to categorize our food picks into fruit, vegetables, protein, starch, snacks, and dessert. I told him that the first three categories had to be at least two-thirds of our basket. It was hard for Ben to calculate, but it also made us appreciate every single pick so much more. When we came home, we got to explain everything, and we even gave my dad back 42 cents.

Popposites — where opposites have pop — is my life. What started as a play that I was writing became an honest telling of my story. My brother Ben is a responsibility that I frequently have to manage. But he is also my companion, and he is very kind. He takes direction from me and looks up to me. So he’s also a gift. There you go. Popposites!

And then there is Alfred. He is one of a kind. He really is the smartest person in the room, most of the time. He is working hard to hide it, though. He has lots of burdens, but I am pretty sure that he doesn’t think being smart is one of them. He can be awkward and honest to a fault. But he is also dependable and only wants to help. He wishes he weren’t such a geek, but it is also what makes him special to friends like me.

Note to self: I should learn from Alfred to just appreciate my smarts and not view it as a responsibility.

This is part of a series. The previous piece was: