[abdnafees]

I have been getting a lot of feedback from my colleagues for the past 2 years or so that I am one of the smartest people that they know of. My mother doesn't like me highlighting the fact that I am smart in front of other people especially our extended family (she thinks they will be jealous and wish ill of me) and pushes me to do better by working harder and keeping my head down.

TBH, I do not consider myself smart but inquisitive. I always try to create mental models based on the simplest explanations of a concept that is otherwise hard to understand. Taking care of my mental health is another thing I do proactively as I suffer from clinical depression. Will all that being said, I go through small obsessions every month or so and that pushes me to know everything about a certain topic and then summarize it at the end in my head. Being smart isn't always a natural characteristic, and it is definitely something you can work on.