Am I a Fool or a Genius?
By: Dyedo Tikio
Tags: Knowledge, Learning, Experience, Sharing, Storytelling

Am I a Fool or a Genius?

I was born in a poor countryside of a secluded palatinate in the last years of the twentieth century. I had been without social media for over 15 years. Life looked great. Dyedo Tikio Dec 14, 2020·5 min read

High school years were a wonderful time that I could hardly forget. Due to the relatively difficult personality and the need for a certain amount of time to fit in, I often had hassle in social relationships every time I moved to a new environment (actually this is not a really important thing). Returning to the story, I – a little girl with a big passion for books and a dream of becoming the future “Prime Minister” since the age of 9, had always been praised and rated as one of the most outstanding and excellent students at that time.

I had no special curiosity other than studying and reading. I was feverish when every new school year came, I went with my mother to the bookstores to buy a new set of textbooks, then quickly ran home and flipped through the contents of it. I always wanted to devour more books and perceive more knowledge every day. I also relished helping others (and proving my own excellence) by organizing study groups, freely tutoring for my classmates. For me at that time, there was nothing better than learning and sharing knowledge. I was also equally interested in cultural activities (although I can’t dance and my voice is hard to accept), actively participated in all events.

I have 2 siblings and 6 cousins (too much?!). All of them have never been prized above me (they all are at least 6 years younger than me). I am always proud of being a noble example for them, but I cannot help wondering, why are they not as good as me or better than me?

I used to be wonderful, smart and ambitious.

(Because my parents didn’t want me to neglect my study, I turned down my need for a more modern phone than the call-only 1208 Nokia that I could secretly buy. I didn’t strive against my dad’s orders and completed my high school years with a perfect score. Sound Great!)

What about me in university years? Being given a smartphone by an uncle as a gift for my efforts when I got into the best university in the country, Me after that was pathetic…

The first ever continuous exposure to new technology (as it was a cell phone, of course), and also for the first time living away from home (away from parental care as well as control), I probably did slipped longer than anyone could imagine at that time.

I was still passionate about discovery and reading, but instead of books and publications, I chose Facebook, Youtube and other social media sites (note, of course, that they are relatively harmful, but I did not mention their harm purposefully). I slipped for the first two years of college and chose to lie on social media to pass the time. I got bored when looking at my work and assignments and did not really understand the content of the lessons.

Why? My former self was smart and creative, right? Why did my current tense me seem so stupid and dull? Was I really as smart as I thought? Or stupid as my college friends thought?

Turned out, I’m not inherently as smart as a genius. I’m good through practice. It turned out that what I had before were all quiet, day-to-day efforts that I never realized. Study. I studied every day. Not tired. The me of that time was not so time consuming by anything, and to gain knowledge, I could only find pages of the book. If there really was a 10,000 hour practice formula for success, I would have unintentionally applied it in my high school years. Thanks to hard work (unconsciously) I picked certain sweet fruits.

Then I realize, it turns out, everyone can succeed. It turns out, my brothers and sisters were able to be just as good as me. It turns out, they could even surpass me, if they invested as much time as I did in the search for knowledge. As it turns out, the brain that seems to have been given wisdom by God, it is actually chosen by myself, and by ourselves. It is dull if not used, and becomes a genius with hard work.

Maybe I had a normal brain like everyone else, or maybe I was a friend who failed the final exam. Maybe it was harder for me to get high scores. But at the time, nothing dominated my attention (fortunately).

Even more fortunate is that after 2 years of immersing myself in social media and constantly asking myself thousands of questions (more than the number of stars in the sky), I promptly realized that valuable lesson and corrected my own life.

The me of today may not be much more successful than many people (because if I did, then you would have come to me for an interview instead of me having to tell my own story), but luckily succeeded than myself of yesterday.

I went back to my passion for reading, and erased (or limited) the presence of social media on device screens, as I (like you) understood how addictive they were. Maybe we actually live another virtual life online, where people try to expose good things and forget their real problems (I still deny that I attack social networking sites). In fact, today’s social networks have probably become truly essential to human needs. However, for young people (like me at the age of 18) who do not have enough understanding and ability to limit themselves, it will be difficult to control and adjust accordingly without parental guidance and supervision.