I’m not an idiot. I’m not a genius. But given my grades and abilities I’d say I’m in top 20%. And yet, life is hard. Life is really hard.
Work is hard, projects are hard, but those are not the hard things for me. It’s the “easy things” that are hard. Paying taxes, not getting tickets, arriving on time, staying in touch.
Now these things are hard for people with ADHD. But I feel that finding apartments, getting along with bosses and family is hard for everyone. I wondered why and I blame, well, our education system of course.
For 12 years I was taught that people in power have my best interest. As long as Ido what is asked, things will be good. It was true for all those 12 years. Sometimes I’d rebel and things would be bad and I would switch to doing the things asked of me. Then you graduate and you realize that pretty much everyone around you who is in power no longer has your best interest in mind but theirs. You realize that now you have to constantly fight because if you don’t you simply do what people want you to do.
The kids who were good at school are not good at this. We really struggle to figure out when to follow rules and when to fight them. The rebels, the C students they are in their element. They have fought the system the entire time. So when they go into the real world, they know just how to push the people in power to get their way. Meanwhile the A students are so busy doing what others asked them that they are exhausted and depressed and not happy. And they are the ones asking themselves: I’m smart, I did everything I was asked to, and yet why is life still so hard?
