Being the Superintendent's Kid

This is me in High School:

I went to school at Shawnee Heights High School which was part of the district that my father was the Superintendent of. My family moved to the district when I was 12 and I started 6th grade that fall.

I remeber trying to keep it a secret from kids that I was the Superintendent's kid, but my parents were close friends with a man who was on the Board of Education, and his daughter, who happened to be the most popular girl in school, had no qualms about telling people who I was and why my family had moved. I hated her. (She was mean but she eventually transferred schools.) Instead of being a kid with the average amount of attention, I was noticed by teachers, classmates, and strangers not because I was extradorinary (I'm not,) but because I was an extension of someone important.

I'd just like to let you all know that being the child of a superintendent is not that great. The only perk I had was hearing about snow days, like, an hour before the teachers knew. I was tagged by teachers as "the superintendent's kid," if I got any positive recognition, in the eyes of my peers it was either because my father used his position to grant me a gold star or because that's just something I was supposed to do; I was supposed to just be perfect. I can't speak for children of principals, vice principals, deens, professors, teachers or anyone else because I know that every position is different, but that's what it was like for me. In my experience, when you're the child of someone in power, you're not you, you're an extension of them.

So the next time you see or are introduced to someone who is related to someone important, try to remember that they are no more of a reflection of their family than you are to your yours, and that they should be thought of as a human being individual of the figures.

#aboutme #photo