At my college, it was pretty easy to see how they assigned us to first-semester freshman classes. All of us in freshman English Comp had last names that started with A, B, or C. It turned out we in this alphabetically privileged group had most of our first-semester freshman classes together. As a result some of us are friends to this day.

Ms. Janosz was our writing teacher. She taught with passion, and inspired us to read and think and write creatively. Sometimes she’d have us read in front of the class. I guess we all had our turn, but nobody read like Matt did. He was one of our group, a B I think. To say the least, he had a gift for reading aloud. When he read angels sang and emotions soared high and crashed hard. We were a bunch of 18 year olds with little appreciation for art, but we were in awe. He was a read-aloud genius, and I admired him for his rare ability.

One day Matt wasn’t there. Upon asking around I learned he had flunked out of school. The genius I admired got failing grades, he couldn’t do the academic work. To me he was better than all of us. To the school, he wasn’t good enough to stay there. I was shocked.

That day I learned there is more than one kind of genius. I learned that assigning the same success criteria to everyone doesn’t fit the real world. I learned that remarkable ability can coexist with remarkable inability. Maybe it’s always does.

None of us A’s, B’s, and C’s will ever forget that guy. Matt if you’re out there I hope you’re reading on a big stage, and I hope I get to hear you again some day.