Chapter 1: A Bored Genius
My mom’s call from the kitchen woke me up. I awoke to the usual rush at my house-the one to catch my bus on time. As I tried remembering all my letters, numbers, and how to perform arithmetic, spilt my glass of milk over the sofa and saw my parents clean up the mess, I realised I probably would miss my bus on my first day of Upper Kindergarten.
We made it just in time, to my surprise. I tried to calculate how we did it, but alas, even then I knew that my “superiorly developed” mind was currently unable to perform such complex functions. Yes, I was arrogant. Beyond arrogant, in fact. I sat on the same damp, cold seat in the very middle of the bus. I made sure to place my packed bag on my lap to make space for the other kid who sat next to me, Rick.
His annoying grinning face appeared in the aisle as he plopped his bag next to me. “HEYYYYYYY!!!!”, He greeted enthusiastically as ever. It revolted me.
“Good morning”, I replied. The wheels moved, and so did the entire bus. Along with the bus, Rick’s lips started moving too. But the words went into one ear and came out through the other.
The box known as school appeared in front of us. The school was a prestigious one, and also the only one that wanted to take me to preschool. Don’t get the wrong idea, I didn’t fail the entrance exam to the other schools. The other schools wanted me to start from a grade higher than my age, which would be too pressurizing. Besides, I knew that this school was one of the best in the city. So, I walked, consciously and very much on purpose into my hell.
The classes were so easy, it was almost boring. I didn’t have anything to intrigue me. I knew how to multiply and divide with 2 digits; apparently, it hadn’t been taught yet. I sighed. I could’ve used the time I wasted on it to figure out some murder mysteries. The teacher called me out. The entire class turned to me. Unevolved chimpanzees, I thought to myself. She made me stand out.
What a drag, I thought. Looking back at it, I probably should’ve argued as to why I was punished and answered any question she had from the curriculum or beyond. But my 5-year-old self was too arrogant to listen to her anyway. So, as the whole class went to the playground, I stood outside the class. Fun day. When I started to get bored, I looked at the clock. It had just been 15 minutes. I knew needed to get my bad habit to explore under control. Nonetheless, I went to explore my “second home”. Didn’t look much like home. The walls were badly painted, The floor was too slippery from the cleaning. The desks were probably the only plus point - they were singular.
Then something caught my eye - a classroom that said I-D. The blackboard had something written on it. As my curiosity drove me closer, the words started to make more sense. Finally, it was something that was on my level. It was basic arithmetic hidden behind a word statement, which was very smart, by the way. Later, I would discover that such problems were called “Word Problems”. I walked into the class as if it was my own and solved the sum. It was quite simple actually-just trying to determine if 56 people got 6 apples each, how many apples would be required. My handwriting was questionable, but the meaning was quite clear. Contentedly, I proceeded to solve the rest of the sums. As the last sum surrendered to me, the bell rang. My class’ roared and rushed back into class. I took my place outside the class before the teacher arrived. Finally, I found something that piqued my interest. I finally found something that challenged my psyche.
The next day, I tried to get out of the class before the class went out on purpose. Rick came up to my desk during our break and asked me why I didn’t come to play.
“Do you want to see why?” I inched closer to whisper in his ear. I knew he was dumb, but this would be a good chance to display my superiority. Who knew, maybe he would leave me alone after this. So, I took him. We wandered through the corridors, wished teachers, and explained that we were headed to the washroom but were lost and were trying to look for our class. We finally found my treasured class. I peeked inside to make sure no one was there, then signalled at Rick to follow me inside. Reluctantly and after 10 minutes of persuasion, he came in with me. I proudly showed him the board, hoping to hear a few gasps, maybe a little congratulation, calling me a genius and maybe even leaving me alone after. Instead, I got a blank look.
“What is that?”, He asked.
“It’s simple arithmetic actually--”
“No, like, pro-pru-preb-prol-WHAT IS THAT?”, He pointed to the heading.
“Word problems?”
“What do problems mean?”, As soon as he asked me that unbelievably dumb question, I realized how long this explanation was going to be.
I sighed. “Don’t worry about it. It’s just something I like.”
“You like problems?”
“Well, no, I mean, yes, kind of, wait…..”I realized he’d just made this much more complicated than I wanted. Ugh, these humans, I thought to myself. I swear I was born into the wrong species. I mean, this neanderthal doesn’t even know what problems mean. I looked at the clock. The lunch break was almost over.
“Anhad, I don’t think you should come here often.”
“Hmm?” I couldn’t believe that this boy who didn’t even have an IQ more significant than the number of questions on the board, had suggested something to me.
“It doesn’t feel right to me, you know?”
“Why’s that?”
“I don’t know.”
We never talked about it again, and neither did I ever take him back there again. He started leaving me more by myself after that incident just like I’d hoped. My boredom was cured by that class that was supposed to be above my level. Knowledge was the only thing I could receive irrespective of my age. To my 5-year-old self, it was because of that satisfaction of completing something and doing something at a level above my peers that kept me sane. However, that was not the case. Truth be told, I felt free, I felt like a belonged somewhere as I could finally do something with the time I spent doing pointless activities. I disregarded how I felt though, and I focused only on my reason and rationality. This was the reason that the hole in my heart, the void that could only be filled with love, and friendship was left unfilled. It was not the fault of anyone but myself. My sole purpose of finding reasons for every happening and not feeling through it left me empty, and I ignored that feeling trying to excuse it for boredom.
