BEING BRIGHT

everything is illuminated, originally uploaded by lagordajarra.

How many times have you known the answer in class, only to argue in your brain as to whether you should raise your hand and risk talking in front of the class? Moreover, how many times have you decided not to raise your hand for fear of being considered "nerdy", or worse, getting the answer wrong?

When I was little, I was told that I was smart, like really smart. The years passed and I fell into the trap sometimes known as the high school classroom, where answering a teacher's question sometimes was in tandem with social ridicule. As a result, the nagging feeling of incompetency crept into my confidence and I began to doubt, well, myself. The girl who was on math team in elementary school needed extra tutoring to get through Alegbra II. I blinked and didn't know what had happened to the pint sized smart spit-fire of my early childhood days. I knew I had changed, but didn't really know why. As a grown up, trying to manage a company is still a challenge for a lot of the reasons that linger in my brain from high school. "What did I do to make them upset me?" "How come that manager gets what he wants without as much effort as me?" 'Why do I second guess my choices?" and, most detrimental, "Why am I so freakin' hard on myself?"

A Girl in the Hall forwarded us this fascinating article, THE TROUBLE WITH BRIGHT GIRLS, in the Huffington Post. In it, Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson, details the facts and her viewpoint on a study of how "bright" girls and boys digested and attempted to tackle tasks in fifth grade. The result was astounding--the girls who were considered the "brightest" were the first to give up on a task, while boys (the rowdier, the more attention they got), plowed through the tasks without every questioning their abilities.

We are all "bright girls" in some way--whether you can ace the SAT, play an instrument with drive and skill, are the top of the list for babysitters in your area, run the fastest mile or are always there for your friends--we all have a light inside, a brightness that is beckoning to get out in some way. Maybe, just maybe, if we can give ourselves the gift of confidence while still in high school before being let out into the halls of adulthood, our gifts can shine out into the world.