Hey Pandas, What Was Your “Damn I’m Smart” Moment?

I once scored a 68 on an Electrical Engineering mid-term.
I thought I was really dumb.
But it was graded on the curve and the closest grade to mine was in the low 50s.

When the teacher said, "over 90% of the grade failed this test, and only one person in this room passed. What is wrong with you kids?"
And I was that one kid that passed (got a 87%, I think). Needless to say, the teacher was what was wrong with the kids.

Also, a quote,
"A truly intelligent person is not one who uses big words, but instead one who uses words that others will understand and relate to."
-me

A fellow coder was stuck and couldn't figure out their issue and spent an hour tearing his hair out so I walked over and took a look. Took me about three seconds to spot the issue and point it out. It was a dumb error that could have happened to anyone, I just got lucky, but it made me feel really smart.

I have been told more or less directly all my life (I'm 39yo) that I'm fat, lazy and stupid. Last year I asked my doctor to please take a better look at my mental health and she referred me to this place where they examine people for different psychological disorders. Turns out I'm not stupid. In fact I'm a gifted person and I have autistic traits (and I am currently waiting to see if I have something else weird in my brain, but that's another story).

When I was informed by the psychologist that I have a high IQ and that in certain areas I perform better then 98%-99% of the population I just broke down and cried. All those years of being put down by people who should just care for me and love me for who I am..... and all I was was actually more intelligent than them. Making me observe and think of the world differently than them.
And that somehow gave me confidence to not hide myself and try to be someone I am not (a more active and neurotypical person). And I know I am still not super smart but if people call me stupid now I am less hurt by it. Because I KNOW I am not stupid. Makes it easier to move on. 🤓

Someone found a note on their desk from the previous class in 6th grade. Everyone was trying to figure out who wrote it, and then I piped up “You could ask the substitute teacher to see the seating chart from the last class.” The sub didn’t get what they asked, but from then on I was known as the one to ask for every question.

On my school, we have reading “assessments” and each learning target is scored a 1, 2, or 3. Usually, I got 1s and 2s because I didn’t understand the target much. But on the last assessment of the school year, on all 9 - 10 targets, all threes. I felt like a giga genius.

The school nurse had come to look after my class a while back and we were discussing health related stuff and some people had doubts about a lot of stuff and I helped them clear it up. I was later asked if I learned all this because I wanted to become a doctor but I instead said I wanted to become an astronomer. My classmate once in a while says “If you know so much about the body then why are you not a doctor?”

i won all the third grade spelling bees. it's probably because i read alot

When we did geography in school the smartest kid would know like... half the answers but I knew everyone
(I'm not making this one up)

When several adults on here told me I was so wise. Practically when any adult says I’m smart/wise. My dad says it all the time but it’s lost its power because of how he overused it T-T

Also when I got over 120 on an iq test. I shall wait to finish school and tackle one of those more official ones that require money.

Also when I was in math class, and my teacher tried to reassure some people that the method they couldn’t quite get was difficult. I got it right away and was like T-T no way am I calling these people dumb, c’mon, that’s just rude.

Also when the MBTI app said Einstein was an INTP. I was like “oh yeah! Personality type is naturally intelligent B•)” though just because you introspective and think of possibilities rather than facts, doesn’t mean you’re smart, I guess.

At this point I’m trying to stay humble… TvT but It’s not hard because people are telling me how dumb I can be every day! =D

Making deviled eggs, I think they were too acidic (can't remember) and I'm not a baker or cook at all but I had the instinct to put a small amount of sugar in them and then when I looked it up later (idk why I didn't look it up when I did it) I had actually done the right thing with no prior knowledge

I had a particularly tough English prof in college. His tests were really hard and everyone worried about passing them. I was a good student but a better exam studier. I finished the final in half the time allowed. Prof said I should look it over again before turning it in. I did. No changes. Prof asked me to hang around until he graded it. Got a perfect score. He said that had never happened before on any of his tests. Ever.

When I realized I'm bilingual. Not necessarily smart, but was surprised I could pull both in less than a second since it's too hard for me to keep up with things like this. So I can proudly say I know my English and now I forget words in both languages lol

Got into Algebra in 6th grade ig.

When I got accepted into a PhD program in 2022.
Due to Covid, many universities did not accept new applicants for the 2021 school year, so applications for 2022 were much higher than normal. My program was an 8% chance.

It's still an odd feeling considering, prior to this, people would talk to me like they think I'm dumb.

In 2010 I went on a guided tour with a group of French and German people. Was able to understand and chat with them in French and German after the second day. I had 13 weeks of French and German in 1996.

When I discovered that I can style my hair quite well, if I spray with hairspray in the breeze of the hair dryer 😎.

When I spent 2 days learning 158 components of the F-111B aircraft fuel system, took the test, on the 3rd day and aced it. yeah boi!

I love it when ministers try to preach to me about God and then try to convert me to their religion. That's my cue to throw some philosophy to them. You ready? Here it is...
Imagine you're in line to get a ticket in order to board One of Two Boats. Now there's no choice. You HAVE to board a boat. You do however get to choose which of the two boats you want to board. These are actual boats with actual facts. The names of the boats are: HMS Titanic and (Noah's) Ark.
When I get up to the ticket booth, I m going to ask, "One for the Ark please"...

I love space, and in 7th grade my teacher asked so many different space related questions. I knew every single answer they had asked while we hadn't even learned any of it yet. No one else knew anything about it. I felt pretty smart then lol