Dumbest one in the family

A coworker and I were talking the other day about our education. He was saying that he was the first one in his family to go to college. And I told him that I am the dumbest one in my family. At least if you count education. I said it as a joke but than I started to think more about it.

 I graduated high school but I went to community college for 3 years, with the intention of getting a forensic psychology degree so I could be a criminal profiler. I realized that being a criminal profiler was not going to work for me. I am too caring of a person that the work would follow me home. So I tried to continue collage but couldn't really find something else that I liked. Also college didn't really agree with me. I did more learning in the real world and researching things on my own. But the rest of my family finished their college experience. 

My dad went back to college in his 40s, while working full time, and graduated with a 4.0 gpa (grade point average) in a nursing program. My older sister went to college for many years with the intention of getting a marine biologists degree, took a break from college, went back, got a degree, 4.0 gpa, and is a lab technician. My brother graduated from le cordon bleu with a gpa a 4.0 and went and took some business management courses with the intention of getting a business degree so he could start his own restaurant. My younger sister hasn't graduated high school yet. She is still in school, so we will have to see where she lands. But she's already way smarter than me. She's ridiculously talented at whatever she puts her mind to. Dance, music, art. Before I started writing this I called and asked what her grades are and she is on track right now to have a better gpa than me. I told her to keep it up.

Like I said, I went to college with the intention of getting a forensic psychology degree. I graduated high school with a 3.4 great point average, I think and left college with a 3.2. Grade point average. I didn't really learn well at school. I also was a big procrastinator. Everything I handed in 

I got a 100% on or 90% at the least. All written assignments and projects I crushed. But the tests I sucked at.  I usually got a B or C grade on any test. I am a very bad test taker no matter how hard I study. 

I also found it was hard to study stuff that I didn't have interest in. All the basic classes and high school and college classes. I've loved math, literature classes, music classes and history. I took every literature, history and music course that was available. But I kind of sucked at science and I had a hard time focusing on it. 

So if gpa or finishing college is your metric of smart, then I'm the dumbest one of my family. I don't know if it could be biological because of me being adopted. I am the only one adopted in my family so maybe chalk it up to that. But my biological mother just graduated after going back to college. So I can't really say that is the reason. 

So obviously I'm not the smartest one in my family. but I'm constantly learning and looking into things and trying to figure things out. I think I'm somewhat book smart. I love reading about things that I find intriguing. I'm constantly looking up stuff online and researching. I have 3 different apps that shoot me random facts everyday. I also have a bunch of podcast that talk about random facts. When i hear a fact that i dont get enough information on i go deep dive into that subject. That is how I learn. 

I was never a fulI time student without a job. I always had a job while in college. I'm a very hard worker. one year when I was in college, I was working 3 part-time jobs. But then I decided I hated working 3 jobs, so I went to one job that paid a bit more. Funny thing is that I am making more money now as a truck driver than I would have if I finished college with the degree I was going for. And I don't have college debt. So maybe I was smart not to finish. 

So does any of this make me the dumbest one of my family? I mean I guess so. But I'm okay with not being the smartest one in the room. I don't put myself above people when holding conversations with people. So I'm okay with being not as smart. I definitely don't think i am stupid. But is anybody stupid? People do stupid things. I think if you don't use common sense that's dumb. And people can be uneducated. Uneducation might can start out as environmental or upbringing. But at a certain age educating yourself becomes a choice and you can choose to be dumb. I mean in this day and age, when the information's at a fingertips, there is no reason not to educate yourself. 

Speaking of educating yourself. While I was writing this I was wondering what the difference between dumb and stupid is. So I googled it. Merriam-Webster offers says these words mean "lacking in power to absorb ideas or impressions." It suggests dumb refers to "an exasperating obtuseness or lack of comprehension" while stupid refers to "a slow-witted or dazed state of mind that may be either congenital or temporary". So if it is a temporary state, then stupid is more appropriate, but both words are typically used to imply a permanent state of lack of intellectual ability. So there you go. So I am neither the stupidest one in my family or the dumbest. Just the least educated. And that is fine with me. Hopefully you didn't find this dumb or stupid…