“Look Ma No Hands!”
At one time in life we all wanted to impress our parents with all the good we were doing and or could do. Nothing felt better than to have your parents brag about what an awesome kid they had.
It was one time to be awesome kid at home and after school, then by open house-mom found out you were clowning in school. How about a doting mom finding out her darling daughter (a high school math prodigy) got accepted to Harvard and Stanford; both beating at the door with full five-figure scholarships awaiting her child’s precious feet to hit their soil? I mean they want her so bad that they sit in talks to arrange for her to attend both schools (two years per school) under a “dual plan program” specifically designed for you.
Watch out now!
Give me room!
Back up!
Don’t mess with me!
*snaps fingers
*brushes shoulders off
I mean, you’re so in demand that Mark Zuckerberg personally places a call to you and tells you Harvard was the place to be.
Welp.
Believe it (or not)-let her tell it-that’s what happened with a 17-year old senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science in Alexandria, Virginia-boasts of being a top-ranked magnet program for the intellectually inclined science wunderkinders, technology gurus, engineering buffs and math wizards who typically do earn their way to some of the world’s most prestigious colleges.
The high school math prodigy’s news spread so quickly that it hit the Korean media and media outlets everywhere-quickly granting her the moniker “Genius Girl.”
Well when this news got back to Harvard, Harvard University’s Communications Director Anna Cowenhoven wrote a letter to Yonhap –a South Korean news agency expressing [quote] “We have been made aware of an alleged admissions letter sent to [the student] by Harvard University. We can confirm that this letter is a forgery…Despite recent media reports, there is no program in existence through which a student is admitted to spend two years at Harvard College and two years at Stanford University” [unquote].
Uh Oh 🙁
The girl’s parents soon realized the mountainous made molehill of a lie was a hoax to impress her parents and peers.
The girl’s father apologized and sent a letter to Yonhap: “I am sincerely sorry for causing trouble with what is not true. I am deeply repentant that I failed to watch properly over how painful and difficult a situation the child has been in so far and that I even aggravated and enlarged her suffering.”
He continued:
“From now on, the whole family will live a quiet life, devoting ourselves to getting the child cured well and taking good care of her. Please forgive me for being unable to offer detailed explanation as the situation has not been completely figured out yet.”
(Source)
P.S.
Although this unnamed (minor child)’s story was a bit out there, she is trying to do something. That said, we are still giving her a spot on our “Teens Turning Up” spotlight/category.
Although she got caught up with the pressures of peers today, she is still in a position and place that requires a certain kind of discipline that she wanted to achieve-badly. The bottom line is: she’s doing something.
