Average...or Above Average?

Parents will always tell their kids that they are so smart, above average, able to do anything they want. Parents say that because they love their kids, it wouldn't be very nice to look a little kid in the eye and say, "No, you're not that smart, you're average and won't get to be an astronaut." That would be mean so instead they tell the child that he is smart and if he wants to be an astronaut then by god, he can do it. But what happens when someone's child really is just average? Does that make them stupid? No, it means they are average, they get by but are nothing extrodinary to the outside viewer. So I have to wonder why society puts all this emphasis on being "above average". There wouldn't be an "above average" without just the average person. Everyone strives to be one of the elite AA people but the truth is that not everyone makes it.

Now, I have always been told I am above average. I have a lot of talent, smarter than you're average Joe. My mother put this ungodly burden on my shoulders by telling me I had to get a 3.5 this quarter or she was pulling me out of school. So she rambled on about how if I just worked hard it wouldn't be any problem. I not so gently reminded her that I take arabic, it is not an easy language and I cannot guarantee such a high average while trying to figure that thing into my other classes. She just gave me the 2-year old talk about being so smart, graduating early, being 17 and nearly finished with my freshman year of college, blah blah blah. As she was going on I started contemplating all of these things. I was in 5th grade when I took the test to get into my high school. The kids I went to school with seemed like idiots to me. I was made to learn all of my multiplication tables in one week in the first grade, I was reading at a 4th grade level at the same time. So by 5th, I was in pretty good shape. The other kids were always asking me to solve their math or reading problems while I sat there and played with that stupid geo-globe for lack of anything else to do. So I was always told I was incredibly smart and deserved to begin my high school career at 12. However, when I got there, it was no picnic. I had to work my ass off trying to learn latin and going from multiplication to algebra. Yeah, that was an adventure. Anyways I worked my ass off and graduated. But I didn't really consider myself to be extraordinary, it was just high school and you keep moving through. So as my mom was babbling about me being smart I said to her, "What if I'm not that smart? What if I'm just average?" Well, she didn't really respond to that, she just said I'm smart again. Blah. I really think I was above average as a young kid but that doesn't stay around forever. People caught up with me, it just took a little while longer. So now, I am the same as everyone else but I don't think thats such a bad thing...average is just that average. Not good, not bad, just simply...average.