I was labeled “Smart” when I was in the second grade. Before then, my mom and brother would have to do my homework for me because I refused to do it myself. Something changed in me, I realized that I did not want to fail so early in life, I must have been wise beyond my years. My strength seemed to be with writing, some of my writing would make my teachers so proud they would proudly present it to others. Slowly, the “smart” label soon followed me into other grades, students would ask me for help and I would find myself running around trying to help them. My mom also starting noticing how well I was doing in school and I would catch her talking to relatives about how smart her children were. The other day, as I was reading my sociology textbook I read an interesting study about telling your kids that they are smart. The kids who were told that they were smart didn’t want to challenge themselves because they were afraid to fail – afraid of not being “smart” anymore. I had to look up from the textbook and look around to realize that I was just like one of those students in the study. I was terrified of starting college because I was afraid of failure of no longer being the girl with the brain. This concern held me back many times. I didn’t choose the harder math class because I heard that the class was difficult. What was I supposed to do in college? Honestly, I have yet to figure that out and I’ve had moments where I felt so overwhelmed I don’t know what to do. I don’t have normal thoughts anymore. I am constantly planning out what assignment I have to do in order to stay on track. Even though I continue to have that anxiety in the back of my mind, I know that I will be okay. I probably will not succeed that everything I do but that shouldn’t stop me from trying new things. It’s better to fail now than in the future.