The bad thing about it that these kids for their whole lives have been told to accept less and apply for that mcdonalds job and do that for the rest of their lives. While the "normal" kid gets told to follow their dreams, makes me mad
There's always going to be people in society who will tell others their dreams aren't attainable. I've seen more people accomplish things through persistence and hard headed stubbornness than anything else.
Sure, being brilliant helps some people do some things easier, but you sometimes have to do self-assessment of your own capabilities and capacity for learning the hard way, and ignore naysayers.
Put another way, I've met more "not that bright" people in life who were wildly successful who accomplished their goals by persistence and hard work, than I've met geniuses living up to their own full potential.
If anything, sometimes geniuses slack off far more than folks who HAVE to work hard for things, because they can.
Many people look at the work of Thomas Edison from the simple stories and history of him taught in lower level schooling and believe he was a genius.
If you dig further into his work, you find that he was obnoxiously stubborn and wrote everything down that did NOT work in his lab, and there's mountains of his own logs that show a different person than the "legend" would indicate. He put in more hours in a week, week after week, than most of us could stand -- failing the entire time. Because he wouldn't give up on whatever he couldn't figure out.
Just the logs of the things he tried to get a working light bulb going, are massive and impressive if you're thoughtful enough to put yourself in his shoes and think about how much time and failures he had before finding the right combination of things to make a light bulb work.
Something nobody thought they needed.
"Those gas lamps work just fine. Why is he in that lab all night messing with that electcity stuff and all those failures to make a lightbulb. Whatever that is!"
Just one of hundreds of examples.
Never give up until the door is firmly and soundly closed on anything you want to do. Sometimes you figure out on your own that something isn't workable for you, but it's still your decision.
I knew and miss a blind friend who hopped a city bus one day, knew the driver's voice and the driver and knew he had a sense of humor, and they acted like my blind friend was there to start his afternoon shift as a bus driver. The real driver got out of the seat and Bob sat down in it. He was going to drive that city bus that day. People scampered off the bus in fear out the back door!
They had a good laugh and Bob knew his own very real limitations, but he never stopped believing he could do anything a sighted person could.
He passed away many years ago, far too young, but he knew he wasn't promised any of his days in life, and his funeral was packed with people from all walks of life who loved his zeal for it. Drive the bus? Hell yes, he could drive that bus!
Not really, but he would have if someone would have let him. He knew not to, but he didn't listen to anyone telling him he couldn't do things. Those people were just a waste of his time. He knew what he could and couldn't do.
