Smart

In the first two years of your life, smart is being able to repeat "mama" and "dada" under the scrutiny of ever-doting relatives who can't seem to find anything else to play with. As you enter kindergarten, smart is no longer having potty-trained yourself, but rather becomes remembering the words to "Yankee Doodle" or the pledge of allegiance before everyone else. In high school, smart is being able memorize every single formula, fact, and term in the textbook and knowing when to regurgitate them. Perhaps by the time middle age rolls around, smart becomes knowing which vendors to haggle with in the marketplace, and being able to buy a head of cabbage at your own price.

"Smart" is actually a measure of what society expects from you at that particular stage in life. As a baby, you are expected to entertain and perform, and once you catch on, you are deemed a smart baby. As a kindergartener, you begin training to become a moral, upstanding citizen, training that involves instilling a sense of patriotism by drilling songs and chants (sometimes of questionable nature--macaroni? "with the girls be handy"?) into your mind. Once you succeed in holding onto these articles of culture and legacy, you are smart. In high school, you begin amassing the knowledge and skills that will eventually transform you into a productive member of society. Exams and homework become essential tools in showing you how to structure your thinking, and if you find the right way to fill in the blanks and crank out those essays, you are smart. Being smart simply means fulfilling someone's expectations for you, and once those standards change, you are left groping for something you thought was unchangeable.