I Embraced My Foolishness Instead of Fearing It
Being foolish has some amazing benefits.
Most people talk fondly about their school and college days. I wish I could too. I even want to. But I would be lying if I did.
I dragged myself through school and college. I didn’t languish at the bottom; I was the student in the middle. And that would’ve been fine if it wasn’t for my parents’ disappointment. They felt let down because my teachers kept telling them I was a bright boy.
But I thought my teachers were lying just to keep them happy. Because I would repeatedly make a fool of myself in front of my teachers and classmates.
I suffered from maths anxiety, which had a cascading effect on my scores in other subjects and eventually, my confidence. I babbled a lot hoping to win friends, but all I succeeded in doing was attracting bullies like a magnet and repelling the rest of my classmates as if I had terrible body odor.
When I tried to study engineering, I failed in 13 out of 16 subjects in the first year. The only ones I cleared were Communications Skills I and II. Nobody fails in them.
I could see it in my classmates’ eyes… they pitied my stupidity. I tried hard to be less stupid. But it was like getting stuck in quicksand — the harder I fought, the more stupid…
