Just so you know, I can't stand rereading this, so it's completely unedited. Sorry. No I'm not.

A while back I got a request to write a rant that has had me stumped. So, as usual, I put it on the backburner hoping to have epiphany on what to do about it, when I came across one of my high school yearbooks. While flipping through the pictures I saw something that just shocked me: a picture of me with my favorite coach and a caption that said my coach's name "and his prodigy".

I don't really talk a lot about my athletic career in high school, because any way I put it, it's going to sound like I'm bragging. Even now it makes me uncomfortable, and I feel really pretentious and selfish, but in the email I got, the requester asked me to write a rant about how these stories with characters that are prodigies (usually musical) are overdone and all alike.

And I put off writing it, because I don't really have experience with prodigies. I preach to you guys all the time about how I don't believe in prodigies because all my years in the gym and behind a guitar have taught me that prodigies will always be second rate to people that practice.

I've seen it over and over and over and I refuse to ever admit that prodigies will ever be better than season veterans who cut their teeth in old fashioned ways.

So seeing that caption absolutely pissed me off so much. People actually thought I was a prodigy.

So I think that even though have other rants a bit like this (check out the golden boy chapter, the cliché chapter, the musicians chapter, among others), it's something I should talk about. I seriously can't tell people no, so you guys get to stuffer through this rant, because it's the closest experience I have to this "prodigy" business, so it's the only way I know to try to help.

And I'm going to start by just apologizing if it sounds like I'm bragging or talking myself up to be this celebrity. It's the reason I stopped talking about my athletic career at the start of my junior year and haven't really said much about it since: because it always sounds like I'm being pretentious and I really hate that. It's one of the biggest reasons I didn't start running again in college. I got tired of everyone bitching.

So, with a great fear that you guys will end up thinking I was some sort of running prodigy bitch who likes to talk herself up, I'm going to share this list of things to keep in mind with a prodigy character/story (through my own experience that has nothing to do with being an actual prodigy, but it's all I got):

1. People will probably find you fake

By the end of my sophomore year, called me my Coach S's Saint, because I was a) the reason he kept his job, and b) always really nice to the other athletes. I dunno who started it, but by the end of my career, that's what the district knew me as. But it drove me crazy, because people started using it as an insult. Like it was an ironic name, because I totally wasn't a saint. I was a fake bitch (which I like to think isn't true).

I love being nice to people. Honestly. People thought it was so weird that I would always shake the other girls' hands before or after races and tell other teams good job or anything, but I just genuinely like being nice. And it's how I was raised and how I was coached. My best friend did the same thing at every one of his games. All our teams did. It's how we were taught. You support your peers. You're nice and polite. You don't act like you're better than anyone even if you are. And I was always taught to believe that I was never guaranteed a win. You were nice, modest, and did your best.

But it wasn't okay when I did it. I could always feel the other girls at meets rolling their eyes at me when I walked away. And by my junior year they weren't even fake smiling back at me or extending any courtesy. It sucked, because I had never done anything to wrong these people yet they were so cold to me. Yes, we were competing against each other, but it wasn't a good enough reason for them to hate me like they did.

And when I would run into someone that wasn't really into the track or cross country world, but had maybe heard my name somewhere or seen me run at some even, they would always ask me if I was a good runner. And I always had the same answer. Every time. "I dunno. I guess I'm okay."

And they called me a fake bitch for that. I was "faking modesty". But I never thought I was some great, infallible runner. I'm twice as good now as when I graduated, and I'm still not world class material.

So it sucked. If I accepted that I was pretty good for high school, I was a bitch. If I was nice and humble, I was a fake bitch. So there really isn't a lot of winning and I'd like to see that explored more for these characters. And don't chalk it all up to jealousy. No, not every one of those other girls was a jealous bitch. Explore that. What other reasons would people have to act like that?

How does this "prodigy" (I hate that word) feel? It can't be good. There has to be some sort of struggle there.

2. You make a lot more enemies than friends

The time I had to scratch out of all my events because of a chest injury, two other teams applauded. And it wasn't because I managed to get off the mat and walk off the track with my coaches. It was because I was out of the competition.

That was a horrifying moment. No, it wasn't their job to worry about me and hope I was okay. But goddamn. They didn't have to cheer that I was out of the races. That kind of behavior disgusts me. And not even because it was me they were being rude to. Getting injured, even just a twisted ankle, is never a good thing and being happy about someone getting hurt is horrible. It is, without a doubt, one of the worst things I've had to experience. It was embarrassing to know that I was so hated, people couldn't even wait until I was gone to show how excited they were that I had to leave.

I remember crying about it and telling my best friend how I just wanted one person. One person to be on my side. I cried about it years later. I'll probably never get over it.

That still haunts me that people can be like that. And honestly, if you've ever been pretty decent at anything, you've probably made some enemies like that. So why don't our characters. And again, it's not just a jealousy thing. For me, they were excited that their jobs just got easier. That a new door had been opened. I want to see more of that, because that's something hard to go through.

A lot harder than finding your true love which seems to be the only conflict these "prodigies" face.

3. It's a lot of pressure

Any time I didn't do my best, I felt horrible. Awful. Like I was letting everyone down. My team. My coach. My school. My town. Everyone.

So the second time I suffered a major chest injury, I was desperate not to let my coach find out. Luckily, it was at a late night practice with just my best friend (because we would go back to the field and practice after practice, because you don't get good by just sitting around). And he helped me home. He helped me through school the next day and it was some intense pain. Then, that evening at the track meet, he took me to the bus, wrapped my entire chest for me so that absolutely everything was tight and nothing was moving (I'm not kidding, I could barely breathe) and I ran my races.

It hurt so badly and I did a horrible, horrible job, but going through all that was better than letting everyone down. It's that much pressure. I would rather have been in that much pain than to scratch out and let myself heal.

It was nine days before I went to the hospital. I was that desperate to keep everyone happy. And that's not healthy.

It's also not healthy to have teammates, classmates, competition, weird people on the street tell you that you have perfect posture and perfect legs and then go on to explain how they are too slouchy or they are too awkward and their legs were too fat or they had chicken legs. That, without a doubt, is the hardest thing when you are good at something: the comparisons.

Having girls compare themselves to you and tell you why they suck is horrible. I'd rather be applauded for quitting. I'd rather scratch out of all my events than let people talk badly about themselves because of me. I can't stand it.

I want characters to have this kind of pressure. Hardly anything is rainbows and butterflies. It's not easy. It's not good to be good.

I want characters that have to deal with being hated. I want characters to have so much ambition that they're willing to do something crazy to keep up their work or their image. I want people to risk everything to stay good, even though the risk of risking everything is losing that one specialty of theirs. I want a lot more hard decisions. A lot more insane emotions.

I want less ease and more pain. I want to maybe see someone fold under pressure. Maybe the story is about the aftershock of that? I dunno. You guys are the writers.

4. You still have to practice.

The word "prodigy" takes away from all the hours I spent in the gym. All the hours in the weight room. All the laps I ran. The miles I was out doing instead of sleeping. The endless amounts of athletic tape, ice baths, swollen joints, sore muscles, and sweat. It made it sound like I walked onto the track and just instantly became good when it couldn't be farther from the truth. I worked my ass off.

I want characters to work. I want them to waste hours practicing their crafts. I want to feel their passion through their determination. I don't want things handed to them.

And since is the end of the rant, I also don't want you to think I was great. I hate that. I did my best.

That's all anyone can ask of you. So do your best. Write your best. Be your best.

And since I feel horrible, tell me something you're good at. Or passionate about! I want this to stop being a me fest and be more a you fest, because I like hearing about you guys!