What makes you better than the next person?, ... Options

[Melissa]

I'm sure everybody's felt superior to some people and inferior to others at some point in their lives. What makes you feel this way? Is it age? Respect? Knowledge, education, personality, etc?

I know when I'm in the presence of someone I have tons of respect for, I feel a bit inferior despite whatever age they are.

[superstitious]

I can honestly say that feeling superior isn't something I readily identify with. I am confident in certain things that other people may not be so confident in.

For example, I'm pretty confident that I know how to take care of a child, a child with autism, on my own with no help from the other parent, better than any of you here can. At least at this point in life. I'm sure at one point many of you will have similar parenting experience (to a degree), so in the future I will not know anything more than you know in that regard.

Having that particular knowledge doesn't make me better or superior at all. I think that even though people may have something that they can learn from you, it doesn't mean that you are any better than them. It means you have something that you have knowledge you can share. It's a simple way of looking at things, but truly, I'm a pretty simple person.

I'm going to skip over the street smarts versus book smarts debate. That argument has gone on forever and no one ever wins. There's positive aspects in both. If you can find a way to somehow mesh the two, awesome.