• FreeAZ@sopuli.xyz
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    1 month ago

    I was friends with the guy who both was and wasn’t the Valedictorian in high school. During the last semester he had already been accepted into the college he wanted, and the school had already given him the $1000 cash prize the Valedictorian got at my school, so he literally didn’t do any work the final semester. He technically wasn’t the Valedictorian because of this, someone else gave the speech, but at that point he had gotten everything he wanted so he just didn’t care lol.

    • ObliviousEnlightenment@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I could’ve been valedictorian, but math sucked and I really just didn’t give a shit. Sucked at the math and hard science classes, didn’t give a fuck. Aced everything else without trying. Still made deans list

      You know what it got me? Unemployed, homeless, hoping I don’t end up in a concentration camp

      • FreeAZ@sopuli.xyz
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        1 month ago

        I was similarly “gifted” and wound up in a similar situation, just not homeless quite yet. Sorry for what you’re going through man, they lied when they said intelligence is rewarded under capitalism.

        • ContriteErudite@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Same here. I was labeled as gifted in first grade, but my home life was filled with neglect and abuse. A couple decades of that, plus being bullied at school, left me with CPTSD that makes trusting anyone nearly impossible. On the surface, I might look like I built a decent career, but the truth is I have spent my adult life wearing masks that barely fit whatever situation I am in.

          Inside, I am constantly fighting the urge to just leave everything, convinced I am useless and only pretending to be a real person. Now that I am in the back half of my life, the weight of it has worn me down and each day gets harder. The only justice in the world that which we make, but we cannot trust justice in a world where worthiness is conflated with wealth.