Have you ever met someone similar to you, whether the similarity be looks, intelligence, interests, or any combination of those? The compatibility can be pretty cool at first, but sometimes too many similarities get annoying. After all, you’re one-of-a-kind and as a result it can be weird to meet someone so similar to you that you feel less unique. A lot of the time, it’s fun be surrounded by several people like you, but it can also be difficult because it’s easy to make comparisons.

The last statement in the above paragraph will be the central idea for this article. To start, I’ll go back in time just a little bit. As far as I can remember, my friends and I have always done really well in school. Honor Roll, all A’s, you name it. There are pictures of me enjoying Honor Roll lunches with my friends. In terms of intelligence, we were all very similar. As we got further along in school, subjects became more difficult. Some of the Honor Roll elementary and middle school kids didn’t make it anymore, but my friends and I still had no issues. By the time high school rolled around, I knew the top 10 of our class pretty well. We were smart, that was normal, and we knew nothing else. Others looked up to us and admired our intelligence, which I thought was cool.

Fast forward to college. My IQ hasn’t randomly dropped by several points, so I’m still smart. The difference between now and high school is that I’m surrounded by people just as and more intelligent than I am. It feels different from being friends with the handful of people like me in high school. Instead of having classes with my friends and others ranked below us, I sit beside valedictorians and salutatorians from other high schools. When it comes to being compared academically to them, it’s tough. Up until this point, all I really knew was being the best, or at least very close to the best. But now, sometimes I’m just average or even less than average. It’s not fun. It makes me question my self-worth and wonder if I’m cut out to be an aerospace engineer. All because I have people similar to me on my left and right.

The best thing I’ve been able to do so far is take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Here I am, enrolled in a very challenging academic curriculum. What I learn and practice on a daily basis would not make much sense to the average person. That never fails to make me feel better in some capacity.

This may have been frustrating for some of you to read. I try not to tell other people when I’m not feeling intelligent because they don’t understand. From an outsider’s perspective, I’m smart and have the potential to succeed. I’d like to get to a point of believing it all the time, but for now I’ll take what I have.