let me tell you my story, a story you have probably heard some version of already

a little kid shows great promise at school, they understand subjects very quickly and answers all of the teachers questions, they are told by their parents, teachers and some friends that they are "smart" and "special"

the kid internalizes those words believing themselves to be "gifted" and above mere mortals, which along side their natural inclination towards learning drives them to reading about sciency stuff, initially to boost their image as the "smart kid" but over time the kid starts to actually enjoy those things and it becomes an obsession of theirs

the kid starts having dreams about building a lab and invent stuff which they share with their friends and family, which is met by a either annoyance or a lukewarm response of unenthusiastic support

the kid relies on their raw intellect to pass the tests, often procrastinating to the last week or day before the exam to study and never learning any study strategies and spending most of their time either reading stuff they like or daydreaming about the future instead of making friends and picking up useful skills

now the kid in question isn't a von neumann level intellect so predictably this doesn't carry them very far, in high school their scores drop significantly but of course they rationalize it as school being too boring for their gifted mind, which isn't entirely wrong but technicality won't spare them from reality 

and then college happens and all that procrastination and daydreaming catches up to them

with practically no study strategies and their smoldering resentment towards the painfully boring education system the kid predictably starts to fail

slowly at first going from 90% to 80% then 70% and nearly failing multiple classes

not wanting their failure to be known they hide their grades when they can and make up excuses when they can't often avoiding friends and family in a desperate attempt to protect their identity as the "smart kid" from uncomfortable questions

eventually their failure becomes obvious and they stop trying to hide it, but instead of being met with disappointment they are met with something even more painful

nobody really cared

nobody really expected anything from them, they either lost hope somewhere down the line or just didn't care from the start

looking back, aside from a few vague words of encouragement to study more the kids parents never really supported the kids dreams, they didn't buy them books or chemistry kits or anything of the sort, they didn't sign them up for special lessons or try to put them in a non shitty school with competent staff and a working lab

the kid thought it was because they couldn't, but now looking back at it it was clear that they just didn't care enough to try, because to them the kids dream to build a lab and invent stuff was just that, a dream that they would grow out of

and they would just get a regular job and get married and have kids and amount to nothing more

now the kid with little to no social skills, no job and barely any friends is for the first time met the prospect of becoming another failed prodigy

another potential man, except the only person who believed in their potential was themselves

maybe the kid would finally "grow up" and except their fate as the next potential man

maybe they would somehow persevere and actually amount to something

or maybe they would cling on to their inner child out of sheer spite

the end result is wasted potential, even if the kid somehow pulls through it would be at the cost of a large chunk of their youth

how many potential men and women are out there in this world? how many are made everyday? how many hopes and dreams are crushed, how many childhoods are cut short, how many flowers fail to blossom?

the kid in that story got off easy, they still have a future but would likely have to spend the reminder of their youth collecting money for their future less mentally flexible self to pursue their dreams, likely filling their brain with a bunch of not-interesting-stuff that they would desperately try to delete once they are financially stable enough to fully devoting their brain to what they actually want

but what about the third world country kid who despite their gifts never even got a chance to start?

the ones who are born at the wrong time in the wrong country to wrong family in the wrong culture?

or the ones who were burnt out by the meat grinder of an education system that most countries have?

how much better would the world be if we went around collecting these lost prodigies and giving them a chance?

if i ever pulled through this mess i vow to pull some of those prodigies up to their feet and give them a fighting chance

and i hope others would too

assuming we don't all die that is