Elliot Lee

Sometimes, I do wonder. What if I hadn’t left high school early? Was I really enjoying my time there? Was a learning?

The changes I made to Walnut High continue to resonate. I never realized how much of an impact I would make. High school was a smaller environment, where you could directly relate with the people. And it seemed possible to be at the top of of the school, be the #1 student.

I never had a chance. Part of the reason I left, I now feel, is that my grades and skills aren’t quite good enough. In an environment where it feels like I should be the best, I definitely was not. I fell somewhere in the middle of the class in terms of grades and standardized test scores. It seems that many students felt I was very smart. That makes me feel awesome, but it’s not true. I often kept my scores a secret. I justified this by considering such measures of achievement to be artificial and inaccurate. And they are. But the unfortunate truth is that, had I done better, I probably would have boasted of my scores.

On the other hand, I’ve always got to keep in mind the people that are seemingly below me. I can remember so many very humbling instances. People at the bottom, truly do have a brilliance. Every person can bring something profound to the table. So I fully disagree with any separation between classes of students - AP vs. honors vs. regular. Students in lower level course are geniuses. Just not in the way that academics expect. I sympathize most with these students. It’s where I belong. I’m somehow incredibly fortunate to have gotten to where I am.
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