I was singled out negatively, too. I was one of the top students and the only American for a long time. Hector came along 2 years later (when we were 14) from New Jersey and he’s significantly more brilliant than I am at Mathematics, though we’re about even otherwise as far as intellect is concerned. Everyone liked Hector, though. He was actually (and still is) embarrassed over the 800/800 he scored on the College Board exam.

Why does our generation make it a bad thing to be smart and do well in school? Hector and I both were guilty of not performing as well as we could academically so as not to be shunned.

Personally, my crush was on the biggest underachiever of the entire school; a boy named Moisés. I thought we’d at least be able to be friends until our Spanish teacher shouted at him, “Soto, you have a zero in this class. Why can’t you be more like Miss Santiago?” Ouch. At least he eventually learned not to hate me, but not until college.

I have a soft spot for the underdog. This has been my undoing more than once.