I completely agree with that blog post. I was the "smart" girl and anything else about me was ignored or discouraged. Well. "smart" and "responsible". But I was never really even complimented on it... it was just a fact and classmates used it to their advantage and adults just expected more out of me.

I started to rebel by the time I was 12, where I started writing messy so my classmates couldn't read my work, and I started to not put effort in. By highschool, I only did homework that was going to be marked and I did not study. In university, I did not edit a single one of my essays - and I was an English major! I also did the minimum of studying and often did not attend class or do readings.

I wasn't able to enjoy my successes because I felt too pressured to achieve them, and then intentionally underachieved so that I wouldn't feel horrible over not having things perfect - because at least I knew that I didn't try!

Do I regret that now? Well yes. Who knows what I could have been if I'd actually tried to meet my full potential. But I was never encouraged, I was just expected to do well.