About two weeks before finals, there are two words that are heard more than any others on our campus: HOPE Scholarship. The two most spoken right behind those? Zell Miller. These two scholarships make in-state schools in Georgia all the more desirable, with HOPE Scholarship covering anywhere from 80-90 percent of tuition, depending on the university attended, and the Zell Miller scholarship covering 100 percent of a student's tuition. Needless to say, this becomes a big deal when in-state tuition drops tens of thousands of dollars and when final grades determine just how many tens of thousands of dollars will be coming out of your bank account that year.

About a week before finals, I got in the elevator in my freshman dorm with two boys. While most talk about these scholarships around finals weeks consists of making sure they are kept, these boys began laughing about how they had partied too much to keep either scholarship. Instead of working on providing some sort of cushion for the 2.5 GPA they had both pulled out the semester before, they were going to give up on the state scholarships and blow off their finals by partying the week of finals as well. In terms of those scholarships, this would mean that they would be going from paying absolutely no tuition to paying the full state tuition for the University of Georgia, around $12,000 in tuition for in-state residents alone. As they walked away, seemingly proud of themselves, all I could think was "Wow." And that was not a good thing.

It seems to be a popular decision to play dumb. Girls will lower their intelligence to impress boys, boys will lower their intelligence to impress their friends and friends will laugh in elevators about low GPAs that will soon lead to hollow bank account balances. It seems to be attractive to be stupid and to blow off a blessing given to you.

It's attractive to be smart. It's attractive to know what you are talking about and to be well-versed in speech and in memory. It's attractive to have an understanding of the value of money, the value of time and the value of an extended education. It's attractive to be attracted to, to have others amazed at the strength of a brain instead of the strength of alcohol tolerance. It's attractive to have strong character, to not need another's help because of full confidence in yourself. It's attractive to be intelligent in mind.

Playing dumb shouldn't be something that we, as humans, do. We should admire our mind, admire what it takes to do what others say could not be done or what others say you can not do.