The roster for the Gold Team sat on the screen of the laptop. There was a name absent from the list: mine.

I was not going to States.

I scrolled through the names. They valued qualities that I didn’t have: quick thinking; the ability to retain large quantities of information; perfect grades. They seemed to value advanced classes more than the actual substance of a person’s mind.

I sat there and stared at the harsh, white screen, my heart slowly sinking into my stomach. It was clear: this was not where I belonged.