- I’m not saying anything in this piece is fact; it’s all opinion/hypothesis based on my own experiences and observations, and I feel like generalizations are inevitable when it comes to opinions. I guess I could’ve made the opinionated nature of this piece clearer – I just had “Don’t use ‘I think’” in your writing” drilled into me in grade school, that’s all, heh.

- I thought that a lot of people must’ve had the very realizations I talk about in the piece (which is why I chose to write about it), and based on feedback, it seems like I wasn’t too far off the mark. I firmly believe that it’s important to be able to see things from different perspectives and that this piece is just an expression of a not-uncommon, but rarely actually expressed, perspective. But I can see how this piece might come off as elitist itself; in fact, it was a big concern as I wrote. As such, I tried my best to write from a distanced viewpoint, as just a result of so much time spent around a lot of really brilliant people.

- Yep, no real specific definition for “smart”, but I guess in this context I lean more toward the traditional academic distinction. And you’re right, smart is something you either are or you’re not. But to have it pointed out constantly – in effect making it a label – is entirely something else. I only labeled “smart people” separately here, because, well, it was necessary to make the point I was making. Being smart itself isn’t inconvenient in any way; having people singling you out by constantly pointing it out is.

- You’re right that teenage brattiness does not help TJ’s elitist rep at all. But eventually, most of us grow out of it (frankly, a lot of kids seem super jaded about TJ by the time they graduate), and any boastful arrogance kinda ends up backfiring at some point because we realize people look at us differently when we say we went to TJ; we become reluctant – at least, I did – to say that we went to TJ. Telling someone you go to/went to TJ becomes in some ways a smaller version of the “H-Bomb” – I jokingly refer to TJ’s version as “dropping the T-bomb.” One of my wisest friends in retrospect is one who told me back toward the end of senior year that he was reluctant to tell people where he’d be going to school because people would always look at him differently when he told them that he was going to… Yale. Same thing with TJ after the first year or two. The “T-Bomb effect” is a large part of what I talk about in the piece.

- The Deus Ex quote I included because I’ve always loved the quote and it felt relevant as I was writing XP

Anyway, seriously: thanks for the awesome comment. **Flame jacket off** ;D

I mean, who is “smart?” You’re talking as if there is a clear, distinct way of telling who is smart, and who isn’t. (GT vs. regular classes). How do you define smart? Being good at math? How about what school you go to? I go to a school that isn’t exactly known for it’s general academics, but it definitely has its fair share of bright students. Heck, back at TJ, even though all students were qualified academically, I’ve seen some that I thought weren’t too bright to put it nicely….I guess what I want to say is that “smart people” aren’t that hard to come across…hence why you can’t describe them..

Besides the other generalizations you made (like smart people are really quite stupid in their own way, or smart people just want to fit in), the one other thing that bugged me was the point with the Deus Ex quote. Smart isn’t something that society can label…it’s just something that someone is, or isn’t. I don’t know how else I can say it. It never came across to me as a “label.” You’re talking as if being smart is unacceptable or embarrassing…it’s reminding me of x-men and similar superheros: “oh no, I have these incredibly bad-ass powers…I just want to be normal…”

As for TJ being elitist, I could see how people could see that. IMO, it’s the combination of ridiculous school spirit and teenagers being immature/bratty…I think many times, when a news article was written about TJ (whether positive, neutral, or negative), the student body, parents, maybe faculty (not sure, but basically the TJ community) in general reacted poorly. The one that I remember the most clearly is the Washingtonian article “Why you need to hate this school,” something like that. The general outburst against the title IMO was pretty much overzealous and immature. People were demanding that the writer apologize, which I think he actually did. Another incident was when WUSA9 said something about incoming freshman receiving new iPads…the outcry was unbelievably annoying & bratty..most of it was centered around a select few, I think, and I won’t be surprised if TJ did come off as elitist…guess that’s why you need to watch what you say when part of a community like this.

Sorry if this is hard to read and if I came across as insulting. I tried to tone it down but still keep my point.

I look forward to your future posts!