Smart is . . .

Another semester is in the books, and for me another perfect grade point average, and as I spread the news of my academic achievements, another down-pouring of praise. It's been over three years since I have gotten anything less that an A in college. After each semester, I am told how smart I am and upon receiving each compliment I can never agree. I consider myself a modest person, but that is not the source of my disagreement. I truly do not think I am smart simply because I can get all A's in a college semester. Many of the people who give me these accolades have tenfold the knowledge I possess, in my opinion. So, it has me thinking what smart is . . .

For starters, let's address why I am being told that I am smart. I go to college and get straight A's. Period. That's enough for people to think I am a genius. Let me go ahead and clear that up for you - I am not. I have already had to refer to dictionary.com & thesaurus.com over five times in this post and I've barely made it past one paragraph.  Hell, I just had to double check how to spell thesaurus. This kind of leads straight into my main premis of the post . . . some people would say that I am smart for accessing the available resources to ensure my work is properly presented. Others would think that I am smart if I could have recited the entire dictionary and thesaurus rather than referring to it. Is the effort to obtain the information, or already knowing it more important? So, back to the first sentence of this paragraph - am I smart because I can get straight A's in college. I say no. It's easy. They teach me the material, I go home and study it, and I am asked to give it back to them on a test. The only way I will take credit for being smart is the fact that I am at every class, usually 10 minutes early, give full attention to the teacher, and do the recommended work outside of class. I sit in the front, don't play on a laptop or phone, and even go to class the day before Thanksgiving and Spring Break. When I look at the empty desks around me, or see someone sitting in the back playing or chatting, I tend to think I am smarter than them. But I think so because I am putting forth the effort and they are not. It's got nothing to do with our comparable mental capacity. I think I made a smart decision to go to school and give full effort to the task at hand. But what about the guy who sat next to me, every single day. I know he didn't miss a class because I didn't. I know he listened intently because I could see it in his eyes. And after dealing with thousands of college students over the past few years, I got the feeling he was the type to read and do homework outside the classroom. However, every time the tests were handed back, he had a B and I had an A. Still, if asked if I am smarter than this guy, I say hell no. If I had to define a smart person, it's this guy because no matter his GPA, he puts forth the effort, and that's a smart choice. I guess that's what it all boils down to - I judge "smart" based mainly on effort, or a certain willingness to get better. I think people are smart when they have a persistent drive and a motivation to give 110% into whatever they are doing. However, I do concede to the fact that attempts don't always equate to results. Giving maximum effort, although extremely admirable, is simply failure when success is not achieved.So where on the spectrum of achievement do we draw the line between smart and . . . since I don't want to say "dumb" we'll go with . . . not smart.

With all that being said, I cannot blindly ignore mental capacity and the ability to retain information. Some people have it, some don't. Some are born with it, some are not. Some people can sit in a 75 minute accounting class, retain all that is being said, and spit it back out. Some think it sounds foreign, and some would literally rather cut out their eyes and eardrums. What if the previously mentioned guy next to me was a petroleum engineering major and just taking an accounting class for shits and giggles? Do you think I am smarter than him because I got an A in this accounting class and he got a B? What if we flipped the script and put me next to him in one of his classes? Who's smart now? This is the thought that crosses my mind every time I am in the garage with my dad talking about cars, or tools, or any of the other shit he's learned over the past 50+ years. And this is the guy telling me I'm so smart . . . all I know how to do is be a good student. And he's not the only one - my mom, girlfriend, hell, everyone I come into contact with has something to teach me. So who's smarter than who? I am pretty knowledgable in regard to business school; the guy across campus is pretty smart in regard to engineering school; my dad is pretty smart in regard to mechanics and the abundance of other things he's learned through hands-on experience; the people on Jeopardy are really smart in regards to . . . who knows what. I've never met anyone who can't teach me something, no matter how smart or how ignorant society deems them. Back to the guy sitting next to me - I pretty much said we both put in equal effort, I got an A and he got a B. There is a judgmental system, the grading scale, and all else being equal, I performed better than him so I would naturally be deemed smarter, right? I say I did better than him in that class. And as for me vs. a 2.0 student, I would just say I do better than that person in school. But smarter than them? No way to tell.

Now let's be clear - this isn't some "let's all join hands and live happily together because we are all smart" bullshit blog post. This is merely a topic that has been on my mind because I do believe that everyone is smart in their own regard, and there isn't a universal definition for the word (I already told you that I refer to dictionary.com so please don't comment with their definition; I am trying to take this conversation a step further and explore how the definition is applied in society). I hope you can see that my argument contains two points: 1) Do you define "smart" as how much information one's brain can encompass, or the desire to obtain that information and the never-ending drive to get "smarter"; 2) If "smart" is defined by how much you know, which I believe it partially is, look at how many different ways we can apply the word. Nobody can know everything about everything; people are smarter than others in different areas.

By no means was this intended to be boastful. I simply needed an example to refer to and chose myself as that example, and how the word applies to me. This was a tough topic to write about; I feel like my ideas didn't come together as organized as I would have liked. If you have any questions, or any thoughts, please comment. I would be thrilled if you simply said "I think smart is ______ because _____" and of course, thanks for reading.