Definition of Intelligence

Joining the Raycliff school in the 4th grade, not knowing what grade I should actually be in, I was extremely intimidated. By the end of the first week, I came home telling my mom, “I can't take real classes, I’m not smart enough.” but I figured it out. I figured out how to survive in a new environment. I adapted. Although I had been home schooled until this experience, I adjusted to a new every day routine. The change from Raycliff to Johnson prep in the 10 grade wasnt as jarring, but I immediately felt the pressure to get good grades. In Falmouth now, I had become settled into the ‘normal’ learning techniques. Taking the core classes; math, science, history, etc., I began to focus on getting better marks. Not because I believed that those grades would translate into a bright future, but because the norm was to get good grades. Even in middle school, kids were studying for hours a night, trying to get a perfect score, to be the perfect child, to be the perfect image of intelligence. My view of intelligence is different. Grades, to me at least, don’t mean nearly as much as ‘life-smarts’. Learning about Hammurabi’s Code and how Iron reacts with beryllium doesn’t necessarily make you intelligent. To be intelligent, you need to be more well rounded. You need to know how to prosper in everyday life. If I want to be a historian, yes I’m going to need to know about Hammurabi’s Code. If I want to be a chemist, yes I’m going to need to know my chemical reactions. People with those careers are automatically considered intelligent. Not saying they aren’t, but people who read books all day or work in a lab for 17 hours straight, miss an important part of life: social interactions. Take one of my brothers best friends, for example. He is the dumbest, brainiac I have ever met. Having a conversation with this man is, for lack of a better word, fantastic. At one moment, you could be talking about how he got arrested last weekend for public urination, and the next you could be discussing mathematical equations above even some of his Princeton professors’ heads. No doubt, in some ways, this man is extremely intelligent. But in others I wonder how he functions in this world. Although he was blessed with an incredible learning talent, he has not yet learned the ability to figure out something that he lives everyday: life.
That is not to say that grades don't matter, because everyone knows that grades do matter, especially when applying to college. But now even colleges are taking into consideration more than just grades and test scores; they care about an applicant's character. They are looking for kids who are involved socially in their communities and kids that are well rounded with a wide range of experiences and talents. But I think they are looking for something more. They are looking for well rounded, intelligent applicants. Colleges are looking for kids that can adapt. Kids can do really well in school, but if they can’t adapt to college, they may not make it. College will be different than anything kids have experienced before. Those who don't adapt, don’t make o succit. So what is, ‘Intelligence’? It’s something i've thought a lot about since I met a man who is extremely successful, he owns businesses, runs companies, builds buildings and flies his own airplane. When I met him, he handed me his business card. On it was his name, followed by the letters, “HSG”. Thinking it was some title or degree I had never heard of before, I asked what ‘HSG’ meant. He smiled and said proudly, “High School Graduate.” With a high school diploma, he figured out how to run companies, build buildings, and fly airplanes. He knew at a young age that high marks and a college degree would not define intelligence He realized that making connections, finding the resources he needed, and seeking out information was more important than sitting down to read 3 chapters of a dusty, old textbook. Now that is intelligent.