leslieism

You know the really, really, really, smart kids you went to school with…that always asked the superlative questions, or in my opinion, more often than not, their questions could be deemed inordinate…tomato, tomato. Well,…they had kids of their own…and I just spent 2 hours with them at an information night, hoping to get Elena into a special program next year in middle school.  As questions were asked by the genius offspring, my eyes inadvertently crossed as if I were back in school and feeling, in layman’s terms, like a big dummy.  But alas, I remembered my child and I remembered that I’m the adult…and I remembered that I’m intelligent. ..and if I want her to have as many opportunities in life as humanly possible, I need to sit up straight, uncross my eyes, and focus.  And focus I did.  In fact, I even took notes.  Because here’s the deal folks, if my daughter wants to be the kid that asks the superlative/inordinate questions…I’m going to be her biggest supporter….and I’ll be damned if I don’t help her make people want to cross their eyes.

I myself was placed in the honors program upon entering middle school.  According to the tests we took at the end of sixth grade, well, apparently I’m a “genius”(I might have given myself that title…but I feel like the ” ” inform the reader (you) that genius can have a variety of meanings).  I was offered the opportunity, through John Hopkins University, to partake in a program enabling me to prepare for the SAT’s…in seventh grade.  I partook in the aforementioned program only once.  I continued with the honors english courses my entire middle and high school career.  Every year I felt less smart as I compared myself to the other students…I was beginning to think I might be in the wrong special program.  I felt like the black sheep of the smart kids. I don’t even know what my score was on the SAT’s I took my senior year…when I flash back to taking them I only see gibberish , in Korean. I don’t even speak regular Korean, let alone gibberish.  Looking back one must wonder…did I really score so high on that 6th grade test? Ooorrrr did I sleep my way to the top?  I would like to insert a Mary Kay Letourneau joke at this juncture, however, she’s happily married with kids…probably money from book and movie rights…the whole shebang.  She is one lucky lady.  Sidetracked.  My point…oh yeah, my point is that I lacked a certain motivation and although my parents were supportive, they weren’t pushy enough?  I’m not trying to put them down…they did the best they knew how.  And I’m sure they learned from their parents and then made adjustments here and there as they raised my brother and I.  And that is all I’m doing now.  I’m taking what I learned from them and making adjustments as I see fit…as I see what worked and didn’t work for me growing up.  You see, if I had continued with the John Hopkins program, I might have had more self confidence?  I might actually be Leslie McCue PhD.  I’m not complaining though….I’ve lived quite an eventful life….and gained much knowledge and wisdom from my experiences and adventures and fully believe everything happens exactly the way it’s supposed to happen.

THEREFORE, it’s currently happening that I must get super excited(no matter how tired I am…and the fact that I must volunteer a lot if she gets in the program) about educational endeavors that will enrich my child’s life and open many a magical door.  I need to maintain a balance of support while fueling the fire of a zealous ambition.  And most importantly, I need to instill in my daughter that every single person is intelligent in their own individual way.  They(“the man”) can try to gauge our intelligence by tests.  And we(“the other guys”) can think we are failures and “big dummies”, if our test results do not match up to their version of intelligence.  OR, we can understand that we must find our Element in life.  “The Element is the meeting point between natural aptitude and personal passion”(The Element, Ken Robinson, PhD.).  When you find your element you invite your potential intelligence to reach full capability.