"I ACED IT"

When I was about twelve years old, I loved this one movie about an arrogant, disrespectful, brilliant slacker named Chris. I watched the movie over and over again, and Chris became my role model—I wanted to be rude, lazy and smart just like him. There was a scene in the movie where Chris was taking a test he hadn’t studied for, and of course being the shockingly smart kid that he was, he still knew all the answers. He wrote the words, “I ACED IT” on the top of his test and smugly handed it to his professor. I loved that scene. It sounded like fun to make perfect scores with zero effort. I decided to try it.

Like Chris, I sat sloppily in my desk and flew carelessly through the spelling test, confident I was doing great. I arrogantly scribbled the words, “I ACED IT” on the top of my test just before handing it to my teacher. 

Unlike Chris’s teacher, however, my teacher probably had a big laugh as she graded the test I turned in that day. I was not naturally a great speller or even a great student in general, and I had spelled every single spelling word wrong. It was a humbling experience seeing a big red “F” circled on my test right next to, “I ACED IT”. 

I didn’t try reenacting that scene anymore after that. I realized that I actually had to study in order to do well. And when it came to some things, I had to study really hard just to get by. Looking back, I’m truly thankful for that because I’ve known for many years now, I no longer want to be an arrogant, disrespectful, brilliant slacker like Chris. So that worked out.

~Amy