Honestly, growing up in school, I was always an IEP student, and I truly felt different because other kids were always catching on to things faster than I was. I was looked down on and bullied because kids would say, “It’s easy—how do you not understand this?” That made me feel like I stood out in a bad way. Having ADHD never helped either. But in a way, going through that made me work harder than all my peers, because I understood that I needed to put in more effort to keep up. It led me to strongly believe that hard work will always outshine talent, because when you truly give 100 percent, it doesn’t matter what people say about you or what they think—your results will speak for themselves. What I wish I had more of was understanding from my teachers. That experience led me to believe that sometimes you just have to figure things out on your own, because people aren’t always willing to help.