Smartest girl in class mocked for "dumb" questions, turns out she was helping anxious pal

Social anxiety can cripple you in many ways, even when it comes to the most simple activities. Whether it's talking to a group of people, eating in front of friends during lunchtime, or even asking your teacher questions in a classroom, social anxiety can hold you back from performing the most basic tasks. Therefore, when someone understands how much of an impact social anxiety can have on your daily life and volunteers to help out despite the consequences, you know that they're a diamond in the rough to treasure forever. Such was the case with one girl in a Tumblr user's classroom.

In a post uploaded to the blogging platform, one user described how one of the brightest students in her class always asked the "dumbest" questions and was ridiculed for it. Despite being taunted, she persisted, asking questions during every lesson. Ultimately, it turned out that the girl was simply helping out a friend who was too socially anxious to ask the questions themselves. If the smartest girl in class could be ridiculed for such questions, perhaps her peer was not wrong to feel anxious about the repercussions of asking the questions themselves. Nonetheless, all said and done, it was an important lesson in empathy, compassion, and understanding for the other students in the classroom.

The Tumblr user (who has since deleted their profile on the website), originally posted, "I had this girl in my class and she was considered to be like really dumb. She'd ask a ton of doubts and questions in class, which everybody would consider to be 'stupid' and 'silly' and even the teachers would often taunt her but she'd never stop asking. But the thing was that she'd almost always top the class and everyone was [confused]. They all thought she was cheating and obviously, even the teachers were very biased because she wasn't so 'smart' in class, and she was regularly accused of cheating. But nobody could prove that she was actually cheating but the whole class and teachers totally believed that she did. I'm pretty socially awkward so I never really talked to her, but she was leaving school this year and I was genuinely curious about how she was so good [and didn't let] everyone's remarks affect her."

This is when the curious student learned a valuable lesson. The user continued, "She always used to sit and hang out with only one girl, and she told me that that friend of hers was severely socially anxious and she'd lag in studies because she couldn't bring herself to ask doubts in class or ask help from others." So what did they do? The supportive duo came up with a helpful solution. "So they had this system where during lectures her friend would write down any question she had, and she would ask them for her," the user explained. "And I was just so touched. It really changed the way I looked at people. This girl endured taunts and jeers and borderline bullying for being 'stupid' when she was actually really smart and could easily have refused to ask such doubts for her but she did. And brushed off everything others would throw at her for her friend. It just really changed me in some way." The story was eye-opening for her and hopefully, it is an important reminder about how we all need to be a little kinder to those around us.