Why I Hate the Word Potential
When I was in the first grade, I was the class topper. I scored 99% on a spelling dictation exam and 96% on a math exam — pretty impressive for a six-year-old, right? But instead of hearing words of encouragement or praise, my parents looked at my report card and asked, “Where did you lose those marks?”
Rather than celebrating my achievements, they focused on the tiny margin that separated me from perfection. And when I couldn’t explain why I hadn’t scored 100%, I was punished. That’s when I first learned that “potential” wasn’t something to be proud of — it was something I was always falling short of.
As I grew older, this pattern followed me, creeping into every corner of my life. In high school, it was my teachers who took up the mantle. Whenever I struggled to understand a concept and dared to ask for help, instead of offering guidance, they dismissed me with comments like, “You have so much potential, but you’re not using it.” It was never about helping me succeed — it was always about pointing out my inadequacies. And when I brought home a disappointing report card, my parents echoed the same sentiment: “She has so much potential, but she’s wasting it.”
Imagine being a teenage girl, already dealing with the insecurities and pressures of high school, only to have every mistake magnified and tied to some abstract idea of wasted…
