Hey you,

I know that school sucks at this age, that it almost feels too boring. I know that you get good grades on almost everything that you do and that you don't even have to put in an effort to get them. You are a smart girl and you know it.

Unfortunately, they know it too.

So you get made fun of because you're the nerd that knows it all and so they tell you that you're a know-it-all over and over until you practically hear it in your nightmares. They claim that no one likes a know-it-all, that no one wants to be friends with a know-it-all. And so you panic.

What if I never have any friends?

And so you try to act like you're not that smart girl because they say that you're not supposed to be a smart girl, don't they? You panic every day that you might end up being that know-it-all girl that day and if you're that know-it-all girl then you're also going to be the girl without any friends.

You can't survive if you don't have friends.

I was this girl. It sucked. It sucked a fat one. Not a single part of my life around then was fun. I hated going to school. I would often worry so much that I would make myself sick. I found out later that it was because I had uncontrolled anxiety.

All of elementary school, I spent my days worrying about being the smart girl. Guess what happened? I was still the smart girl. I was a smart girl that still had friends. Funny how things like that work.

Middle school came and suddenly, it wasn't a bad thing to be smart. They all started asking me about my plans after high school, what I wanted to be, but it wasn't like it was before, they were being serious this time. A smart girl like me should get into all the schools that she wants. A smart girl like me should be getting into the Ivy League.

Okay... no pressure.

I had to pick a career, but it had to be a smart girl career, not an average girl career. Teacher? No. Engineer? Perfect. I shouldn't let smarts like mine be wasted on something so... ordinary. I was not given my brain because God wanted me to be a secretary, they would tell me.

Again, no pressure.

High school hit and I figured out that I actually wasn't as smart as everyone made me out to be when I was younger. Honestly, I was sort of in the bottom of the pack of smart kids at my school.

Great. Now what?

High school got harder the higher up in grade level I got. Honors classes, AP classes, dual credit classes: how do you make yourself look the best to the colleges you're applying for? And then we start the questioning my entire existence portion of my life.

What if I don't want to go to college at all? Trades are super important, I should just go into one of those. But what if I take time off from school and it turns out that I never go back and end up a bum on the streets?

I ended up at a state school that wasn't even in question until right before I applied in a career that I never thought I would be in.

So, you smart girl, you know-it-all, take your intelligence and do great things with it. You have no reason to be afraid of never having friends because at the end of the day if they don't like you for who you are, you are better off without them.

Go be the smart girl. Answer all of the questions, get all of the A's, be the girl everyone else is aspiring to be. You are a smart girl, take it from another smart girl, it is the best thing that you can ever be.