To play it cool

It is a little odd that I only hang out with T twice in the past three years. We were in the same city while never actually tried to meet each other at least once. Until recently, he graduated and is preparing for moving to another city in the same state. We went to middle school together, and he was always the top 1 student in the class. Every teacher seemed to like him a lot for his talents in various subjects and great academic performances. If I was one of them, I would like him too. He is absolutely a straight-A student with enough self-motivation. No need to pay any extra attention to him because he would just take good care of him for everything.

Looking back, I think he's quite intelligent in many dimensions. Needless to say how good he was at studying. Also, he isn't nerdy at all. He likes reading as a hobby. When we were teens, he started to read all the classic literature books. I borrowed a couple books from him too. My parents did not invest much in my talent. Probably no one ever told them that I had one in something. Or simply because they were too busy to notice any specials of me. Being in the same class had given me a chance to learn from him, I guess. But I don't think we ever tried to befriend each other. Even today, we are more like acquaintances to each other. He is a good person, but he could be a jerk to people, including me, when he was younger.

It is kinda funny how people came into your life and then left away immediately as shooting stars. Both of us lost contact with most kids from the same class, and never tried to reunite with anyone. The stratification system just does its role. It filters people who are not resilient enough, who haven't worked hard enough, who are not rich enough, etc. For the two of us, we were fortunate enough to have something to stay in the system while I would admit that he's more capable than me to navigate in such a capitalist society.

It was quite pleasant to hang out with him. He's still very smart as he was in middle school. Graduating from a prestigious U with a doctorate before the 30s is a big achievement in any sense. Seeing things analytically and being able to empathize with others are great virtues. No wonder why I still like him as a person. Maybe I just try to play it cool.